relevant questions about to include anti-patterns in the documentation. Note these questions are also pertinent .

• How much is the component or pattern being used?
• How often are people looking for it in our design system?
• Is there an opportunity to make it less bad?

Including bad practice in design systems gives us an opportunity to call it out: it's the perfect place for alignment of our understanding or opinion of what constitutes bad practice.

I don’t subscribe to the idea of purely “descriptive” design systems - ones that simply systematise existing UI, regardless of its usability and quality. Design systems have a responsibility to mitigate - and certainly to not proliferate - bad practice.However, design systems must also acknowledge the reality of the context in which they sit. If problematic components and patterns are being widely used, then our design systems can play an important role in discouraging further uptake, raising awareness of their issues, and offering risk-mitigation advice and alternatives to consider. As with most design system concerns, there’s no blanket solution here. But I hope these considerations will help you the next time you’re faced with this question.