Balancing Specificity and Scalability

Three strategies to strike a balance between specificity and scalability

How can we balance making design tokens specific enough to be useful, but general enough to be reusable across our system?

When creating tokens with broad applicability—aimed at enhancing reusability and scalability—how do we mitigate the risk of unintended consequences when implementing changes in the future?

At its core, the challenge lies in finding the sweet spot between creating specific tokens for precise control and maintaining a scalable system that minimizes unintended ripple effects.

Imagine two different scenarios:

Scenario 1: Multiple Specific Design Tokens

In this scenario, we create individual design tokens for each adjustable property, resulting in a highly specific but less scalable system.

// Button tokens
$button-background-color: #007bff;
$button-text-color: #ffffff;
$button-border-radius: 4px;
$button-padding: 10px 20px;
$button-font-size: 16px;

// Input tokens
$input-border-color: #cccccc;
$input-background-color: #ffffff;
$input-text-color: #333333;
$input-padding: 8p…