Get weekly design system tips and tricks, directly to your inbox.
The Star Wars saga by George Lucas has been a cultural tidal wave since the original movie debuted in 1977. Since then, a plethora of stories have been written about the Star Wars universe and characters, some by Lucasfilm (and later by acquiring company Disney) and others by other companies and the general fan population.
Which begs the question: Which stories are “official,” and which are not?
To answer that question, Lucasfilm established the idea of “canon” in 1994. As defined by online encyclopedia Wookiepedia, Star Wars canon is the set of immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align.
Star Wars canon includes:
All live action films (Episodes I–IX, Rogue One,Solo)
Animated and live-action TV shows post-2014 (The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian, Andor, Ahsoka, The Bad Batch, etc.)
Books & comics published after 2014
Select video games (Jedi: Fallen Order & Survivor, Battlefront II (campaign only), Squadrons, Tales from Galaxy’s Edge)
Galaxy’s Edge theme park (Batuu)
In short, canon is gospel. Everything else is considered part of the “Expanded Universe” (later rebranded to “Legends”), i.e., they’re allowed and encouraged to exist even though they’re not part of canon.
The overall awareness of Star Wars generally reflects canon, too. Most people know canon characters Darth Vader and Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker and Yoda, but Expanded Universe characters Cindel Towani or DRN-38 or Nadia Grell are much less familiar, even though they’re crucial to their storylines.
The model of what is and isn’t canon holds well for design systems as well. At every point, your design system should contain what’s canon, the official components and patterns and processes to which everything else must align.
That doesn’t mean that everything has to go in the design system. In fact, some stuff shouldn’t go into the design system. Every organization needs an expanded universe of components, ones that are crucial to their own local stories.
Deciding what components, patterns, and processes get promoted to canon through a pilot-based governance and contribution workflow is how your design system starts to become the collection of stories of how your organization makes valuable digital interfaces for your customers.
