5 Great Design Systems to study Design Tokens

Into Design Systems Team

Apr 10, 2025

Design tokens are the connective tissue of design systems—bridging design and code to ensure consistency, scalability, and accessibility. If you’re looking to learn how the pros do it, studying established design systems is a great place to start.

Here are 5 design systems that offer outstanding documentation and practical examples of design tokens in action:

1. Nord by Nordhealth

🔗 nordhealth.design/tokens
Nord’s token documentation is clean, minimal, and well-structured—an excellent reference for scalable token usage.

2. GitLab Pajamas

🔗 design.gitlab.com/product-foundations/design-tokens-reading
GitLab’s Pajamas system offers a practical and approachable take on design tokens for both designers and developers.

3. U.S. Web Design System (USWDS)

🔗 designsystem.digital.gov/design-tokens
With strong accessibility and flexibility principles, the USWDS token approach is transparent, practical, and well-documented.

4. Adobe Spectrum

🔗 spectrum.adobe.com/page/design-tokens
Spectrum illustrates how tokens can power adaptive, cross-platform design systems with deep theming capabilities.

5. Atlassian Design System

🔗 atlassian.design/tokens/design-tokens
Atlassian provides a structured token system that supports a wide product ecosystem with consistent UI foundations.

✨ Happy Learning! ✌️
Screenshot taken from: Nord Design System

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Written by:

Sil Bormüller

Founder

He/Him

As a freelance Design System Lead and Consultant, I’ve supported companies like adidas, Philips, and Ableton with their Design Systems. I understand the challenges that come with being a team of one or part of a small Design Systems team, I have been there.

That’s why I founded Into Design Systems, to connect with like-minded professionals and learn from experts together. Today, professionals from all over the world come together to learn about Design Systems which makes me so happy!

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I learn best through examples, demos, and hands-on instructions rather than long presentations full of slides. You’ll find many of these practical elements in our conference.