MINU Design System
A personal design system built to remove friction from starting new projects.
Overview
Most projects don't start with a design system. They start with a blank canvas, repeated decisions, and components that have already been designed dozens of times before. Over the years, I found myself rebuilding the same foundations for project after project — buttons, forms, spacing rules, typography scales, color tokens, navigation patterns, and interaction states. MINU started as an attempt to remove that repetition.
The Goal
The goal wasn't to create a universal design system. It was to create a lightweight starting point that could adapt itself to different products while preserving consistency, speed, and flexibility.
Something that could become a project's design system if one didn't already exist.
Design Principles
Three principles shaped most decisions:
- Minimal by default: The system should provide only what most projects actually need.
- Extensible by design: Components should be easy to add, remove, or replace without affecting the rest of the system.
- Developer-friendly: The structure should feel familiar to modern frontend workflows and reduce friction between design and implementation.
Inspired by Modern Frontend Systems
MINU was heavily inspired by the philosophy behind shadcn/ui. Rather than behaving like a closed component library, it was designed as an open foundation that could evolve alongside the product using it. The token structure and component architecture intentionally stayed close to modern frontend patterns, making collaboration with developers significantly easier.
What's Included
The system currently includes:
- Design tokens
- Typography foundations
- Color system
- Spacing rules
- Core components
- Form patterns
- Dark mode support
Current State
MINU is still evolving. Although it is actively used, I still consider it a v0.1.0 project rather than a finished product. That feels appropriate for a system designed around adaptation and iteration.