Design-System-Aware Development with AI: Evaluating Productivity and Design Consistency
arXiv:2607.13156
The paper evaluates how AI tools that understand design systems can speed up front‑end development and improve consistency when turning mockups into code.
Abstract
Design Systems (DS) help standardize front-end development, yet developers still face challenges when translating high-fidelity mockups into consistent, production-ready interfaces. Although AI-assisted tools have emerged as a potential solution, empirical evidence on their effectiveness within DS-centered workflows remains limited. This paper reports a controlled experiment conducted at a large Brazilian enterprise that compares manual development, DS-only development, and DS-aware AI-assisted development across Angular, iOS, and Android stacks. Results from two experimental cycles show that AI assistance significantly reduced time-to-delivery (by 46.7% to 69.4%), increased task completeness, and decreased performance variability. Analysis of break patterns further suggests reduced workflow friction and smoother task execution. These findings provide empirical evidence that DS-aware AI tools can significantly accelerate development, improve design fidelity, and yield practical benefits for industrial front-end workflows.
SBES Industry 2026