Become an Advocate for SLDS
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe the structure and responsibilities of a design system team.
- Advocate for SLDS adoption.
A Picture of the Modern SLDS
You may ask, “Is it possible for something so great to be even more great?” Well, SLDS fans, the answer is yes. Here’s an overview of where the Salesforce Lightning Design System is today—and how you can be a part of it.
Today, SLDS has two design systems.
SLDS 1
Launched in 2015, SLDS 1 set the standard for enterprise design. It’s the original Salesforce design system with semantic and accessible component markup, cross-browser compatible CSS, icons, fonts, and design guidelines.
SLDS 2
SLDS 2, launched in 2024, is the foundation for the agentic design system for Salesforce products built on the Lightning Platform. It brings a flexible styling framework and advanced theming options, making it easier to create, customize, and maintain high-quality user experiences.
Communal Responsibility
The whole Salesforce Lightning Design System is the responsibility of an entire community. The people who create, manage, and use SLDS share that responsibility. The system design team curates SLDS 1 and SLDS 2, but anyone can suggest an addition or modification. The success of SLDS depends on active participation from the SLDS community.
Here’s how it works.
The designers and engineers of the Salesforce design system team:
- Curate the design system.
- Maintain the SLDS 1 and SLDS 2 websites.
- Educate people about design systems in general, and SLDS in particular.
- Build design system tools, such as developer environments, plug-ins, design files, and more.
- Coordinate with Salesforce engineering teams to deliver code for Salesforce products.
The lightningdesignsystem.com site now contains SLDS 2 content. For SLDS 1 content, visit v1.lightningdesignsystem.com.
Meanwhile, Salesforce researchers, accessibility specialists, product designers, product managers, and engineers contribute to the design system. Contributions come from identifying problems that SLDS patterns haven’t yet solved. The design system team works closely with contributors.
Beyond this internal cyclical process is a large external ecosystem of partners and customers who build apps on the Salesforce platform. SLDS relies on an active community to generate ideas, provide feedback, and submit contributions.
Why Use SLDS?
No one is required to use the Salesforce Lightning Design System, but most Salesforce designers do—and for good reason. SLDS doesn’t promote consistency just for consistency’s sake. Consistent design improves the user experience because users know what to expect and how to use standard parts of a Salesforce app. Good design puts user needs first. If the best design for your use case doesn’t use SLDS, that’s OK. You choose how much of SLDS to use. The design team’s goal is to make you want to use SLDS.
So, why should you use SLDS? Using SLDS can help any size project run smoothly, reducing both workload and technical debt—a benefit that can apply in areas including Salesforce Lightning themes, display density, right-to-left localization, and dark mode. SLDS helps you build solutions that:
- Use structured, proven, trusted patterns.
- Improve feature adoption.
- Scale faster, with less technical debt.
- Provide accessibility for users with disabilities.
- Reflect Salesforce branding.
SLDS Ambassadors
To maximize the benefits of any design system, you must make sure that product teams are using it efficiently. One way to do this is to nominate an SLDS ambassador at your company.
Ambassadors are SLDS experts who serve as liaisons between designers and developers and the SLDS curators, sharing information, feedback, suggestions, and contributions. They act as consultants, guiding teams through SLDS processes and helping others get the most out of the system. When you designate a person (or a group of people) at your company to be an SLDS ambassador, you give them a platform to pass knowledge to the rest of the team—and make SLDS better for consumers.
Ready to get started? Read on for the tools and resources you need to use SLDS.