Day 12: Design system Documentation #25DaysofDS

A Design system is nothing without documentation. Documentation is very important to make your design system useful for your end-users. If you think that why you need the documentation then this post is for you.

If you are a developer who thinks that documentation is not important then try to use a new library without looking at the documentation. You will get your answer. Despite developers are one of the users of your Design system but providing documentation is very important to make the developers understand - what is the design system, how to install it, how to use it, and all related information.

The design system's documentation should be taken care of very well. it is important to have a content writer for the documentation. Though the documentation is a teamwork reason? The design system has a lot of features - Components devs and designs, UX patterns, UI Kits, etc. Hence, every person should provide the documentation of their field and let the content writer do her/his magic.

As a developer if you are thinking that we should only provide tech-oriented documentation then you need to rethink. The reason is your design system could also be used by the designers, product managers, and many folks who are not in the tech. Hence it is important to give all the information as much as you can do about your design system, components tech, and non-tech information.

Few things which are very important for the documentation:

1. How to install a Design system?
2. How to use a Design system?
3. Browser supports
4. Design system release plans and versions
5. Component list and status
6. Component - were to use, design specs, best practices attributes, required values, etc.
7. UI Kits and patterns - What, how and when to use?

The bottom line, don't assume the documentation should be only talking dev language. It should be generic. So, any non-tech person can pick your design system and start using it.