Design tokens are the atomic units of a design system. Good tokens enable theming, accessibility, and cross-platform consistency.
What Tokens Are
Named values: colors, spacing, type scale, radius, elevation. Referenced, never hardcoded.
Three Layers
Primitive (raw values), semantic (purpose-named), component (component-scoped). Reference up the layers.
Theming
Dark mode, brand variants, density. All implemented as token swaps at the semantic layer.
Tooling
Style Dictionary, Tokens Studio, Figma variables. Single source of truth, multi-platform output.
Who This Is For
- Product designers shipping customer-facing interfaces
- Product managers whose KPIs depend on UX quality
- Engineering teams owning a design system
Common Mistakes
- Designing for design awards instead of user outcomes
- Skipping accessibility until lawsuits force it
- Animating for delight at the cost of performance
Business Impact
- Higher conversion on key user flows
- Design system that ships consistently across teams
- Accessible products that expand total addressable market
Frequently Asked Questions
JSON or CSS?
JSON as source, CSS/JS/native generated. Style Dictionary handles transformation.
How granular?
Start coarse. Add granularity as real needs emerge. Over-tokenizing is noise.
Who owns tokens?
Design + platform engineering jointly. Changes go through both.
Why AIM Tech AI
- Custom-built systems, not templates or off-the-shelf wrappers
- AI + backend + cloud + infrastructure expertise in one team
- Built for production scale, not demo-day experiments
- Beverly Hills, California — serving clients worldwide
Build Systems, Not Experiments
AIM Tech AI designs and ships AI, cloud, and custom software systems for companies ready to turn technology into real business advantage.
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