Building a Design System → Part V: Documentation in a Design System.
There are many ways to accomplish tasks, so you want your team to be able to approach their work in a way that suits them. On the other hand, consistency is critical, especially for regularly producing things. In “part IV: New to working with a design system? Use a Get-Started-Kit!” we discussed how to create a “Get-Started-Kit” of the design system to accelerate the onboarding process. Documentation encourages knowledge sharing, enabling your team to understand better how methods work and what finished projects typically look like.
What is Documentation
Documentation is any communicable material used to describe, explain, or instruct regarding attributes of an object, system, or procedure, such as parts, assembly, installation, maintenance, and use. Documentation can be provided on paper, online, or digital or analog media, such as audio tape or CDs. — Wikipedia
Design systems document the building blocks of products. Good documentation is crucial for adopting the design system since it consolidates usage guidelines to help developers, designers, project managers, and other stakeholders ship predictable UIs. Documentation can range from high-level guidelines to details about specific components.
