Snowflakes are one-off components that are used sparingly, often for a single page. These often break out of your design system [[20220801105616-break-out-design-system]]
These components are vital for your overall design system health. It makes sense for components to exist that fulfil needs but can't initially, or won't ever be abstracted into a generic component included in a design system.
To better identify trends, snowflakes can be tracked or exist in a specific place so they can be periodically audited. [[20220704124529-design-system-harvesting]]
Ideally over time the amount of 'one offs' or 'snowflakes' lowers, as the design system offers more solutions for these.
Snowflakes can also be a useful tool for identifying missing pieces. Although not every snowflake is a missing piece of the design system, it's purpose and the hole it's trying to fill should be documented. This helps figure out what is missing, and what is out of scope. https://bradfrost.com/blog/link/design-systems-why-snowflakes-are-counterintuitively-integral/
https://bradfrost.com/blog/post/where-to-put-one-off-components/