Automate design system management with zeroheight and Zapier

With zeroheight, we’re obsessed with allowing you to manage your design system easily. A big part of that has been allowing teams to integrate their design systems with the tools they’re already using, like Figma, Storybook, and Github, among others. Today, we’re massively adding to the list of available integrations by partnering with our friends at Zapier.

Zapier allows teams to build their own integrations with more than 6,000 tools, including Jira, GitHub, and Azure DevOps.

Together, zeroheight and Zapier allow design systems team to automate project management, increase design system adoption, and better connect design and development.

• How the zeroheight and Zapier integration works
• 5 Zaps to get started automating your design system
• Read the help article for a step-by-step guide

How the zeroheight and Zapier integration works

Like any other Zapier integration, the zeroheight integration relies on triggers, actions, and search steps. While these terms may seem foreign at first, you can think of building a zap as creating a chain reaction. Triggers are the first activity that sets everything off. Search steps allow you to determine which activities should trigger a reaction. And finally, actions can be thought of as the reaction or what you want to happen after a trigger.

So, imagine you had three styleguides for three different products. You want to send an email when you release a new version of the styleguide for Product A. However, it’s important that only the product teams who work on Product A receive the email. In this case, the trigger would be the styleguide release. The search step would ensure that the zap only continues if the release is associated with Product A’s styleguide. And finally, the action would send an email to the email list of folks working on Product A.

Below, we’ve detailed the available triggers, search steps, and actions.

Available Triggers

Triggers in Zapier determine when a zap should start. For now, zeroheight has two available triggers.

Styleguide Release Created

You can choose the release of a styleguide as a trigger. When this one is selected, an action begins only after you release a new version of your styleguide. For example, you may choose to send an email letting your team know to check out the newest version of your site after a release.

Page Status Updated

zeroheight allows you to create your own page statuses to help both styleguide editors and viewers quickly understand the status of a page. Since the feature launched more than a year ago, teams have created statuses like New, In Progress, and Under Development.

The new Zapier integration allows you to use the change of a page status as a trigger to run a zap. A perfect way to use this trigger would be to create a new issue in Jira when a page status is updated.

Available Actions

Actions in Zapier dictate what happens after a trigger. You can think of them as a reaction.

Update Page Status

Remember, a page status in zeroheight is meant to clearly communicate the status of a page to viewers and editors. With the Zapier integration, you can update the page status in zeroheight after something happens in another app. For example, an issue being moved to “Complete” in Jira Work Management could update the page status in zeroheight to “New” signifying to editors and viewers that the documentation is complete, new, and ready to use.

Search Steps

Search steps in Zapier allow you to get specific with the zaps you create.

Find Page

One of the available actions is to update page status. This find step allows you to dictate which page you’d like to update the status of to ensure your zap works perfectly everytime.

Find Styleguide

This search step allows you to find the styleguide you’d like to perform an action in. So, if you want to update a page status in a specific styleguide using a zap, this search step ensures you’re always on the right one.

5 Zap templates to help you get started automating your design system

Increase design system adoption by announcing new releases in an email

Both Gmail and Outlook are available in Zapier, allowing you to send an email everytime you release a new version of your styleguide. You can customize the body of the email to include the release notes you created in zeroheight. You can also choose to include the name of the release in the email subject.

💡Did you know our new in-product Analytics dashboard allows you to see how styleguide views change after a styleguide release? With the Zapier integration and Analytics, you can see how your emails affect design system adoption. We can show you how – set up a quick demo.

Automate project management by creating a Jira ticket when a page status is updated

Page statuses in zeroheight are customizable, meaning operationalizing this Zap has limitless potential. But, it’s easy to imagine something like a “Ready for Review” page status update triggering the creation of an issue that notifies the appropriate member of the design system team to take a look.

If you’re aren’t using Jira, no worries! Zapier also includes integrations with Asana and Trello.

Keep documentation in sync between GitHub and zeroheight

If the team is using README files in GitHub to keep developers up to date on what’s in the design system, you can keep that information up to date with this new integration. You’ll just need to send over release notes when you launch a new styleguide release.

Good news – BitBucket and GitLab are both available on Zapier too!

Send a message in Slack or Microsoft Teams

If you’ve been using zeroheight for a while, you know that the platform already includes a native integration with Microsoft Teams and Slack. That integration allows you to send a notification, including release notes, when you launch a new version of your styleguide. The Zapier integration builds on that foundation to allow you to do even more.

You can send a message when the status of a page is updated, allowing the team to discuss next steps. Or, if your team has a presence on both Microsoft Teams and Slack, now you don’t need to choose between them when notifying folks about a new release.

Keep the whole company up to date on Notion, Confluence, or a custom wiki

Calling out your work in a place the whole company visits is never a bad idea. With the Zapier integration, you can create a note whenever you release a new version of your styleguide to ensure every member of the company is up to date on what’s included on the design system site.

See what you and your team can create

With more than 6,000 tools and counting, what you can do with zeroheight and Zapier is nearly limitless. Find the tools most relevant to your team on Zapier’s app store and start automating design system management.