DESIGN.md tells you what your product looks like. TASTE.md tells you why it works.
Every design system lives in three tiers. Most tools stop at tier 2.
Colors, typography, spacing. The atoms every design tool covers.
Components, patterns, states. How the atoms combine into usable blocks.
Intent, decisions, philosophy. Why you made these choices and what you're defending against.
Visiona's laneA real design system answers these four questions. TASTE.md is where you document the answers.
Every design decision has a cost. The color palette is 11 colors, not 31. Why that number? What did you give up?
Which rules bend under pressure, and which ones don't? If a designer can't round corners above 2px, they need to know why.
Your design system is a mood. Should the interface feel premium or accessible? Serious or playful? Which signals accomplish that?
Anti-patterns matter as much as patterns. What UI mistakes has this system been built to prevent?
Here's the TASTE.md for playgroundjiujitsu.com — the BJJ academy that inspired Visiona's audit framework. Real questions. Real answers.
By Visiona Silva
A design system without taste is just a style guide. Get the philosophy document that makes your design system actually mean something.