SUMMARY
Purpose: Establish a unified, scalable visual and content design language that enhances usability and brand coherence.
Design Thinking Phase: Prototype
Time: 2–3 hour workshop + ongoing documentation and iteration
Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐
When to use:When scaling a design system across multiple teams or productsWhen visual and content inconsistencies are impacting UX or user trustAfter consolidating insights from early research or MVP launch
What it is
A Design Language integrates visual language (colour, typography, layout) and content guidelines (tone of voice, structure, terminology) into a reusable, evidence-led framework. It ensures that designs are coherent, inclusive, and aligned with brand values across all touchpoints.
📺 Video by NNgroup. Embedded for educational reference.
Why it matters
A strong design language acts as your team’s shared vocabulary — eliminating ambiguity, accelerating velocity, and improving accessibility and brand cohesion. It empowers distributed design and engineering teams to make consistent decisions without constant alignment meetings.
When to use
- During design system rollouts or rebrands
- When working across product squads with siloed design practices
- To improve, scale, or evaluate current UI content and visual patterns for consistency
Benefits
- Rich Insights: Helps uncover inconsistencies impacting the user experience at scale.
- Flexibility: Enables systematic creativity across different product surfaces.
- User Empathy: Guides more inclusive, accessible decisions in both visuals and language.
How to use it
- Audit existing visual and content patterns using real screens and flows.
- Map key components (e.g. buttons, input fields) and key language types (e.g. CTAs, error messages, onboarding copy).
- Identify inconsistencies, redundancy, or misalignments with user mental models.
- Develop usage guidelines for colours, spacing systems, font hierarchy, tone, and copy standards.
- Document atomic elements as flexible ‘tokens’ that allow for local adaptation while retaining consistency.
- Test and iterate the design language in real flows — don’t limit to static libraries.
- Align with engineers and content strategists to codify design-to-dev handoffs and voice guidelines.
Example Output
A snippet from a visual + content design language system for a fictional Australian fintech mobile app:
- Button Styles
- Primary: #005F56, white text, 16px font, 12px padding
- Secondary: #FFFFFF border + text, background transparent
- Disabled: #A6A6A6 text and border, no hover state
- Microcopy Tone
- Use calm, confident phrasing (“You’re all set” not “Success!”)
- Use plain English and avoid fintech jargon (“Transfer complete” instead of “Transaction settled”)
- Contractions are OK — aim for friendly but respectful
Common Pitfalls
- Over-defining too early: Avoid locking in visual or content rules before testing them in-context.
- Isolated documentation: A Figma file alone isn’t a language. Bring in real UI, copy, team input.
- No process for iteration: Your design language should evolve as users, tech, and needs shift.
10 Design-Ready AI Prompts for Design Language – UX/UI Edition
How These Prompts Work (C.S.I.R. Framework)
Each of the templates below follows the C.S.I.R. method — a proven structure for writing clear, effective prompts that get better results from ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or any other LLM.
C.S.I.R. stands for:
- Context: Who you are and the UX situation you're working in
- Specific Info: Key design inputs, tasks, or constraints the AI should consider
- Intent: What you want the AI to help you achieve
- Response Format: The structure or format you want the AI to return (e.g. checklist, table, journey map)
Level up your career with smarter AI prompts.Get templates used by UX leaders — no guesswork, just results.Design faster, research smarter, and ship with confidence.First one’s free. Unlock all 10 by becoming a member.
Prompt Template 1: “Audit Visual Consistency Across Screens”
Audit Visual Consistency Across Screens
Context: You are a Senior Product Designer reviewing end-to-end screens from a native mobile app.
Specific Info: The app uses a semi-documented design system, but colour treatments, icon placement, and spacing feel inconsistent.
Intent: Identify UI patterns that violate design language standards or cause user confusion.
Response Format: List each inconsistency by screen name, define the issue, and suggest a fix (including which token or spec to refer to).
Ask if a visual reference or Figma file link is needed to give more precise feedback.
Then, propose one organisational tip to ensure future screen consistency.
Prompt Template 2: “Draft Microcopy Guidelines by Scenario”
Draft Microcopy Guidelines by Scenario
Context: You are a UX Writer defining the voice and tone strategy for different moments in the product experience.
Specific Info: Scenarios include errors, onboarding, success states, and empty states.
Intent: Create a tone matrix that balances brand personality with user emotional state.
Response Format: A table mapping tone principles per scenario, with example lines and do/don’t guidance.
If you need more detail on brand values or audience, ask for a summary context.
Offer one suggestion to validate tone with real users.
Prompt Template 3: “Generate Naming Conventions for UI Components”
Generate Naming Conventions for UI Components
Context: You are part of a cross-functional team standardising component naming across design, content, and dev.
Specific Info: Components include buttons, cards, alerts, inputs.
Intent: Recommend semantic, descriptive, and scalable naming patterns aligned to accessibility principles.
Response Format: Provide a table with component name, usage context, naming rule, and accessibility tip.
Confirm whether the frontend framework uses BEM, utility classes, or custom tokens.
Suggest one rule to prevent naming conflicts later.
Prompt Template 4: “Evaluate Content Hierarchy in Interface Copy”
Evaluate Content Hierarchy in Interface Copy
Context: You’re optimising content layout for dense or data-heavy UIs, like dashboards or settings panels.
Specific Info: Users often miss key actions or misunderstand grouped settings.
Intent: Improve scannability, progressive disclosure, and clarity of CTA placement.
Response Format: Provide annotated sections showing H1/H2/H3 structure, copy alignment tips, and truncation strategies.
Ask if user personas include accessibility needs.
Recommend one layout model (e.g. card, table, list) based on density levels.
Prompt Template 5: “Redesign Error Messages to Match Tone & UX Best Practice”
Redesign Error Messages to Match Tone & UX Best Practice
Context: You’re rewriting error states for a form-heavy flow where current messages are too vague or robotic.
Specific Info: Users encounter validation, system, and permission errors.
Intent: Make errors helpful, human, and in-brand without sacrificing clarity.
Response Format: Before/after examples per category, with explanation of tone rationale.
If brand voice documentation is unclear, ask for keywords or examples.
Suggest a follow-up test method to evaluate effectiveness.
Prompt Template 6: “Benchmark Design Language vs Competitors”
Benchmark Design Language vs Competitors
Context: You are preparing a stakeholder presentation on UX consistency and branding alignment.
Specific Info: Comparing visual and tone elements of 3 competitor apps vs yours.
Intent: Show gaps and opportunities using side-by-side data.
Response Format: Competitive audit grid with design language factors, scores, and commentary.
Ask if screenshot references are allowed.
Propose one opportunity to differentiate visually.
Prompt Template 7: “Design Inclusive Labels and Instructions”
Design Inclusive Labels and Instructions
Context: You are reviewing UX copy for accessibility and diversity.
Specific Info: Current copy may use gendered, ableist, or culturally specific terms.
Intent: Improve inclusivity across all user-facing components.
Response Format: Provide inclusive rewrite suggestions by component, with rationale and flags to share with legal/comms.
Request the latest company guidelines if available.
Share one cross-check tool to validate inclusiveness.
Prompt Template 8: “Draft Reusable Tokens for Typography and Spacing”
Draft Reusable Tokens for Typography and Spacing
Context: You lead a design systems team documenting global visual standards.
Specific Info: You’re working with developers to bridge style definitions with theme values.
Intent: Define naming and scaling logic for font sizes, spacing increments, and line heights.
Response Format: Table of token names, values, aliases, and description examples.
Confirm if CSS-in-JS or utility framework is in use.
Share one naming tip from design systems best practices.
Prompt Template 9: “Storyboard Tone Across Multi-Step Flow”
Storyboard Tone Across Multi-Step Flow
Context: You’re designing copy for a 5-step setup experience that requires high retention.
Specific Info: Flow includes welcome, profile setup, data input, confirmation, and education.
Intent: Ensure the microcopy tone is progressive, non-repetitive, and emotionally calibrated.
Response Format: Step-by-step storyboard showing suggested messaging tone, example lines, and rationale.
Ask if onboarding metrics (e.g. completion dropoff) are available.
Suggest one test method to validate tone across steps.
Prompt Template 10: “Facilitate a Team Workshop for Design Language Alignment”
Facilitate a Team Workshop for Design Language Alignment
Context: You’re leading a cross-functional working session with designers, writers, and engineers.
Specific Info: Your current design language is fragmented and lacks adoption.
Intent: Align stakeholders on visual and content standards and co-develop fixes.
Response Format: Provide a 90-minute workshop agenda, including activities, prompts, outcomes, and follow-up tips.
Ask how familiar participants are with the existing system.
Suggest a pre-work inspiration exercise.
Recommended Tools
- Figma Tokens Plugin – for seamless visual token management
- Ditto – for connected content design and UX copy collaboration
- Stark – for accessibility review of UI and language patterns
- Zeroheight – for documenting design language in a living, shareable handbook
- Plugin: Contrast Checker – for validating accessible colour defaults
