Understanding Aliasing in Design Systems

Aliasing is an essential concept in design systems, helping teams organize, standardize, and scale design elements efficiently. It allows designers and developers to reference design tokens (such as colors, typography, and spacing) using meaningful names instead of raw values. Instead of manually applying hex codes or pixel sizes everywhere, aliasing enables teams to use predefined names like “Primary Blue” or “Spacing Small,” ensuring consistency and reducing errors. This approach simplifies updates; when a design token needs to change, it can be modified in one place, and the update applies system-wide.

A useful analogy is how we organize music playlists. Instead of adding the same song to different lists manually, we save it in a central collection and reference it when needed. Similarly, aliasing makes design updates more efficient and maintains clarity across projects.

Why Aliasing Improves Readability and Consistency

One of the key benefits of aliasing is that it makes foundational design values more readable and accessible. Without it, designers would have to work with long hex codes or inconsistent pixel values scattered throughout a system. Aliasing converts these raw values into understandable terms, such as naming different shades of gray as “Gray 100,” “Gray 200,” and “Gray 300.” These standardized names act as shorthand references, ensuring that design teams and developers pull from the same predefined set of styles.

Aliasing also prevents inconsistencies caused by hard-coded values. Without a structured system, different team members might select slightly different colors or spacing values, leading to an uneven user experience. By enforcing a structured aliasing approach, a team ensures that everyone references the same values, reducing visual discrepancies and maintaining a polished, professional interface.

A great way to think about this is home painting. When painting a room, you don’t mix colors yourself every time. You purchase a pre-mixed color like “Seafoam Blue” to guarantee consistency. Aliasing works the same way, providing designers with clear, predefined values instead of forcing them to select new colors or spacing options each time they create a component.

Choosing a Naming Convention for Aliases

Naming conventions play a crucial role in how well an aliasing system functions. There isn’t a single correct approach, but the most important thing is maintaining consistency. Some teams prefer numerical scales like “Gray 100, Gray 200, Gray 300,” while others opt for descriptive names such as “Light Gray, Medium Gray, Dark Gray.” Some design systems, like Google Material Design, use increments of 10 (e.g., Gray-10, Gray-20), while others start from 100 and increase.

The choice of naming style depends on the overall structure of the design system and how closely it aligns with engineering standards. What matters most is that all team members (both designers and developers) can easily understand and apply the naming conventions without confusion. Establishing a clear, scalable system from the start helps prevent unnecessary complexity later on.

Semantic Aliasing: Giving Meaning to Design Tokens

While aliasing makes raw values more readable, semantic aliasing takes it a step further by assigning names based on function rather than appearance. Instead of labeling a color “Blue-500,” a more meaningful approach would be calling it “Primary Button Background.” This makes it clear how and where a token should be used, making the design system easier to navigate.

For example, if a company decides to change its primary button color from blue to green, updating the alias “Primary Button Background” ensures that the color changes wherever it is applied, without disrupting the entire system. This approach also makes design systems more adaptable to future branding changes. Rather than referencing raw color values, designers and developers can focus on how each element functions in the UI.

Semantic aliasing follows a structured hierarchy. The first level is the raw value, such as the hex code #FFFFFF. Next, this value is assigned a primitive alias, like “Gray 100,” which acts as a generic reference. Finally, the primitive alias is given a semantic alias, such as “Card Background Color,” defining its specific use case. This layered approach ensures flexibility, allowing broad system-wide updates without requiring tedious manual adjustments.

Common Naming Conventions in Aliasing

Different teams use different naming conventions based on their needs. One common approach is Object-Role-Variant Naming, where names are structured based on what they affect and how they’re used. For example, instead of simply calling a color “Blue-400,” you might use “Button-Color-Primary” to make its role clear.

Another approach is Namespace Prefixing, which adds a unique label to variables to prevent naming conflicts in large projects. For instance, “Blue-400” might become “ds-button-primary,” where “ds” identifies that the variable belongs to the design system. This is useful for large companies with multiple design teams working across different products.

Some teams adopt Block Element Modifier (BEM) Style, a structure borrowed from development practices. It breaks names into clear segments using double hyphens and underscores. A button color might be labeled as “–button–primary” or “–button_border–default,” making the structure easier to follow.

Functional Naming is another widely used convention, where names describe what the design token does rather than what it looks like. Instead of “Red-300,” a functional name like “Color-Feedback-Error” makes it immediately clear that the color is used for error messages. Similarly, State-Based Naming prioritizes interaction states, using labels like “Hover-Background-Color” or “Focus-Border-Color” to indicate how UI elements change based on user interactions.

For teams that prefer a hierarchical structure, Hierarchical Naming starts with a broad category and narrows down to specifics. A color token might be labeled “Color-Text-Link,” following a logical order from general to specific. Meanwhile, Scale-Based Naming organizes values by numerical or descriptive scales, such as “Spacing-Small,” “Spacing-Medium,” and “Spacing-Large,” ensuring clear relationships between different sizes.

Finally, some teams use Combination Naming, which merges multiple conventions for extra clarity. For example, “Blue-400” could become “ds-button–primary-color,” combining a namespace, object-role modifier, and functional description.

The best approach depends on the needs of the design and development teams, but the key is to ensure clarity, scalability, and consistency throughout the system.

Bridging the Gap: Building a Design System from Scratch

For many designers, especially in startups or fast-moving teams, building a design system from scratch can feel overwhelming. It’s common for early-stage teams to prioritize speed over structure, but investing in aliasing and semantic naming early on prevents inconsistencies as the product scales.

A basic design system includes several key components: colors (such as primary, secondary, and neutral shades), spacing and layout definitions, typography guidelines, reusable components like buttons and form fields, and state-based interactions for hover, active, and disabled elements. Establishing clear aliasing and naming conventions at the start ensures that these elements can be easily maintained and adapted as the system grows.

To get started in Figma, teams can create a dedicated file with separate pages for colors, typography, components, and guidelines. Using local variables for colors and spacing helps maintain consistency. Once the design system is established, it can be published as a Figma Library, allowing designers to sync and apply components across different projects.

For those new to design systems, the key is to start small and iterate. Understanding aliasing and semantic naming makes it easier to build a scalable system while keeping it structured and user-friendly.

Final Thought

Aliasing is a powerful tool in maintaining a well-structured and scalable design system. Whether it’s naming colors, typography, or spacing, structured aliases help ensure consistency, improve readability, and make updates easier across teams. Adding semantic meaning to these aliases makes them even more intuitive, allowing the design system to evolve without breaking its structure.

If you’d like to discuss this topic further or explore how I can help you build one for your project or your team, feel free to reach out at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you!