design-system-audit

Design System Audit Skill

This skill produces a structured audit of a design system — covering component coverage, token consistency, documentation quality, accessibility compliance, contribution processes, and adoption health. Output is ready for a design system team, design leadership, or an engineering team evaluating their shared component library.

Required Inputs

Ask the user for these if not provided:

• Design system name and what product(s) it serves
• Audit scope — component library / design tokens / documentation / contribution process / all of the above
• Current tooling — Figma / Storybook / Zeroheight / custom / combination?
• Team using it — how many designers and engineers, how many products?
• Known pain points — what do teams complain about most?
• Governance model — centralised team / federated contributors / no dedicated team?
• Goal of the audit — improve adoption / prepare for a rebrand / onboard new teams / justify investment?

Output Structure

Design System Audit: [System Name]

Products served: [List of products / apps] Audit scope: [Full / Components only / Tokens only / Documentation] Auditor: [Name / Team] Date: [Date] Stakeholders: [Design lead, Eng lead, CPO, etc.]

Overall Health Score

| Dimension | Score (1–5) | Status | |---|---|---| | Component coverage | [X/5] | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | | Token consistency | [X/5] | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | | Documentation quality | [X/5] | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | | Accessibility compliance | [X/5] | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | | Adoption rate | [X/5] | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | | Contribution process | [X/5] | 🟢/🟡/🔴 | | Overall | [X/5] | 🟢/🟡/🔴 |

Summary: [2–3 sentences. What is the overall state of the design system? What are the top 2 issues and what is the biggest strength?]

1. Component Coverage Audit

How to assess: Compare components in the design system against the actual UI patterns in the product. Every pattern that exists in production but not in the system is a coverage gap.

Component Inventory

| Category | Components present | Coverage | Gap | |---|---|---|---| | Navigation | [Navbar, Sidebar, Breadcrumb, Tabs] | [80%] | [Missing: Mega menu, mobile drawer] | | Forms & Inputs | [Text input, Dropdown, Checkbox, Radio, Toggle, Date picker] | [90%] | [Missing: Multi-select, Rich text editor] | | Feedback & Alerts | [Toast, Banner, Modal, Tooltip] | [60%] | [Missing: Inline validation, Progress indicator, Skeleton loader] | | Data Display | [Table, Card, Badge, Avatar] | [50%] | [Missing: Data grid, Stat card, Timeline, Gantt] | | Layout | [Grid, Container, Divider, Spacer] | [70%] | [Missing: Responsive breakpoint utilities] | | Buttons & Actions | [Button, Icon button, FAB, Link] | [100%] | [None] |

Coverage score: [X% of production UI patterns are covered by the design system]

Most impactful gaps:

1. [Most used pattern not in the system — causing most duplication]
2. [...]
3. [...]

2. Component Quality Audit

For each component, assess against these quality criteria:

| Component | States complete | Responsive | Accessibility | Dark mode | Props documented | Code matches Figma | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Button | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Modal | ⚠️ Loading state missing | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ⚠️ Partial | ✅ | | Table | ❌ Sorting state missing | ❌ No mobile layout | ⚠️ No aria-sort | ❌ | ❌ | ⚠️ Drift | | [Component] | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] |

Legend: ✅ Complete — ⚠️ Partial / inconsistent — ❌ Missing

Components with critical quality issues (fix before anything else):

• [Component name]: [Specific issue and why it's blocking]
• [...]

3. Design Token Audit

Token coverage:

| Token type | Defined | Used consistently | Issues | |---|---|---|---| | Colour | [X tokens defined] | [⚠️ — 12 hardcoded hex values found in Figma] | [Inconsistent use of primary-500 vs primary-600 for CTAs across products] | | Typography | [X tokens defined] | [✅] | [None — all type styles use token scale] | | Spacing | [X tokens defined] | [⚠️ — custom spacing used in X components] | [Engineers using arbitrary px values instead of spacing tokens in X components] | | Border radius | [X tokens defined] | [❌ — not defined; each component has hardcoded values] | [Button, card, modal all use different radius values with no token] | | Shadow / elevation | [X tokens defined] | [⚠️] | [3 different drop-shadow values in use; no elevation scale] | | Animation / motion | [X tokens defined] | [❌ — not defined] | [Transition durations inconsistent across components] |

Semantic token layer: [Does the system have semantic tokens (e.g. color.action.primary on top of color.blue.500) or only primitive tokens?]

Token drift: [Are code tokens and Figma tokens in sync? Use a tool like Token Studio, Style Dictionary, or manual comparison.]

4. Documentation Quality Audit

Assessment per component / pattern:

| Document type | Quality | Issues | |---|---|---| | Usage guidelines | [⚠️ — X% of components have guidelines] | [Button and Form components documented; Navigation and Data Display mostly undocumented] | | Do / Don't examples | [❌ — mostly absent] | [Engineers frequently misuse components because intent is unclear] | | Accessibility notes | [⚠️ — present for some components] | [No consistent format; accessibility notes missing for interactive components] | | Code examples | [✅ — all Storybook components have code examples] | [...] | | Changelog | [❌ — no component-level changelog exists] | [Breaking changes are not communicated; causes unexpected UI regressions] | | Migration guides | [❌ — absent] | [Teams don't know how to upgrade to new component versions] |

Documentation score: [X% of components have complete, usable documentation]

Most common designer / engineer complaint about docs: [e.g. "I can't find whether to use Modal or Drawer for this use case — no guidance exists"]

5. Accessibility Audit

WCAG 2.2 compliance status:

| Criterion | Level | Status | Components affected | |---|---|---|---| | Colour contrast (text) | AA | [✅ / ⚠️ / ❌] | [e.g. ❌ — Disabled state text fails 4.5:1 ratio in 3 components] | | Colour contrast (UI components) | AA | [✅ / ⚠️ / ❌] | [...] | | Keyboard navigation | AA | [✅ / ⚠️ / ❌] | [⚠️ — Modal focus trap not implemented; Dropdown not keyboard accessible] | | Focus visible | AA | [✅ / ⚠️ / ❌] | [...] | | Screen reader support (ARIA) | AA | [✅ / ⚠️ / ❌] | [❌ — Table component lacks aria-sort; Icon buttons have no aria-label] | | Touch target size | AA | [✅ / ⚠️ / ❌] | [⚠️ — Mobile tap targets below 44×44px in X components] | | Motion / animation | AA | [✅ / ⚠️ / ❌] | [...] |

Critical accessibility blockers (must fix before next release):

1. [Most critical issue — e.g. Keyboard users cannot close Modal — focus trap missing]
2. [...]

6. Adoption Audit

Adoption by team / product:

| Product / Team | Components used from system | Custom components built outside system | Adoption score | |---|---|---|---| | [Product A] | [X% of UI uses system components] | [Y custom components] | [High / Medium / Low] | | [Product B] | [...] | [...] | [...] |

Why teams are not adopting:

| Barrier | Severity | Evidence | |---|---|---| | [Component doesn't exist] | High | [Top reason in team survey] | | [Component exists but doesn't meet use case] | Medium | [Modal component lacks X state needed by Product B] | | [Documentation too sparse to know how to use it] | Medium | [...] | | [No one enforces system use — easier to build custom] | High | [...] | | [System is out of date with product's current visual language] | Medium | [...] |

7. Contribution Process Audit

| Dimension | Current state | Assessment | |---|---|---| | How to contribute | [Documented / Not documented] | [✅ / ❌] | | Contribution criteria | [Clear entry bar for what goes in the sy