A Guide to Maintaining an Effective Changelog for a Design System
Jules Mahe
Having a solid understanding of your organization’s design system is one of your responsibilities as a design system practitioner. As design systems evolve and mature, keeping track of changes becomes crucial to ensure seamless collaboration, transparency, and efficient maintenance. One effective way to achieve this is by maintaining a changelog. In this article, we will explore the importance of a design system changelog and provide practical tips on how to create and maintain one.
What is a changelog?
First, let’s get on the same page—A changelog is a document that records all the changes made to a particular software project or system. In the context of design systems, it serves as a historical record of changes made to a design system. It provides insights into the evolution of components, guidelines, and styles, enabling teams to understand why certain decisions were made and the impact those decisions have had over time. It’s an essential tool for maintaining the system’s integrity and ensuring that all team members are aware of any changes made to the system.
Why is a changelog important?
There are several reasons why maintaining a changelog is essential for a design system. It fosters transparency, encourages collaboration, and helps manage expectations between cross-functional partners.
One of the main benefits of maintaining a changelog is that it fosters transparency within the teams that use the design system. By documenting all changes, team members can see what has been done and why, which helps to promote collaboration and understanding. This transparency can also help to manage expectations between teams, as everyone is aware of the changes that have been made and their impact on the system.
Another advantage of maintaining a changelog is that it promotes accountability as it signals to others the design system is alive and up-to-date and that any issues are addressed in a timely manner. If you want to know more, we have an article about how leveraging the releases feature to version your design system can be a pulse about managing your design system lifecycle.
Furthermore, a changelog can be a valuable tool for informing decisions about future changes to the system. By looking back at previous changes and their impact, designers and developers can make more informed decisions about how to move forward. It can also help to identify areas for improvement, as patterns change over time and may reveal areas that require further attention.
How to maintain a changelog for a design system
Maintaining a changelog for a design system doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are some steps you can follow to create and maintain a changelog:
Establish a clear structure
To maintain an effective changelog, consistency is key. That’s why it’s important to establish a clear structure that is easy to navigate and understand when maintaining a changelog. Define a standardized format that includes elements such as the date of the change, the author(s), and the impacted version or release number. Organize changes by version number or date, providing a concise summary of each update.
Categorize changes based on components, guidelines, styles, or any other relevant sections to facilitate quick reference and searchability. There are several formats and categories you can use, the most common ones are the following:
- Added: This category records new components or features added to the system.
- Changed: This category records changes made to existing components or features.
- Deprecated: This category records components or features that have been marked for removal in future versions of the system.
- Removed: This category records components or features that have been removed from the system.
- Fixed: This category records fixes made to bugs or issues in the system.
Take a look at how other design systems are doing it to get some inspiration. See how Clarity’s changelog also uses categories, but makes a visual summary at the top, how Adeo links directly to GitHub, or how Spectrum displays their updates in a table and connects to the component page.
Ultimately, build a changelog that fits your design system by taking what you think is relevant to your needs and making it unique.
Clarity’s changelog making it visually appealing
Document changes in detail
Whenever a change is made, record it in the changelog using the appropriate category. Each entry in the changelog should provide sufficient information about the change. While keeping it concise, consider including a title or summary that clearly describes the modification, and provide additional details such as the rationale behind the change, impacted components, and any specific considerations or dependencies. You can also include the date it was made and the name of the team member who made the change. This level of detail ensures that everyone involved has a comprehensive understanding of the update.
Look at this amazing and detailed changelog by Cedar Design System
Define a clear versioning system for your documentation
A versioning system is a valuable tool for tracking and communicating changes in your design system over time. One common mistake might be to align versions across all the code and design libraries, documentation, etc. However, it can get messy very quickly and very complicated to maintain over time. That’s why we suggest having your own versioning system for each and use our versioning feature to help you maintain your documentation easily.
When it comes to naming your versions, consider using the Semver (short for Semantic Versioning) as it’s a widely-used standard in the software industry to document the changes made between successive releases of a public interface. It assigns a version number consisting of three numbers separated by periods to each release, indicating major, minor, and patch changes (for instance: 3.10.2), with each number having an ordered series of versions. By implementing Semver, design systems can effectively track and communicate changes, ensuring that all team members are on the same page.
Make the changelog accessible
The final step in maintaining a changelog is to make it available to everyone who consumes the design system.
If your design system is stored in a version control system like Git, you can store the changelog alongside the system’s code. This makes it easy for team members to access the changelog and view changes made to the system.
If your design system has a documentation site (like zeroheight 😉), you can include the changelog as part of the site. This makes it easy for team members to access the changelog and view changes made to the system.
Generate an automated changelog
If you’re using zeroheight, it is now even easier with our “Whatâ€s New†feature which helps you generate a changelog based on your recent changes and allows you to get an overview of new updates without doing so manually.
When adding a What’s New section to your styleguide, you’ll get an option to either summarize the most recent updates made to the design system in the last 30 days or to include all changes made since the last release. Basically, any action (e.g., adding and editing content blocks or restoring a page) will appear in the Updated section and you’ll then be able to adjust the content you want to share with your team.
Our team would love to hear from you about this new feature, so feel free to reach out to our product manager Lewis, or book a slot in his agenda directly to talk about it!
Communicate Changes Proactively
The changelog should not be a hidden document but a communication tool. To maintain a design system and ensure its continued success in real-world applications, it is essential to communicate any changes, updates, and future plans to the entire organization. Share the changelog with the relevant teams and stakeholders, and establish a process to notify them of updates proactively. This can be done through or dedicated communication channels such as Slack, Teams, GitHub, wikis, team meetings, newsletters, company blogs, intranets, and other internal tools used for communication and collaboration. By the way, did you know you could also use our Slack integration feature to send an automated message in a specific channel to inform your teams about your latest updates?
By incorporating communication into the team’s daily workflow, stakeholders, makers, and users remain engaged, and users are reassured that the pattern library is actively maintained and improved. This helps to maintain a collaborative environment and you create a culture of transparency and collaboration that ensures the design system is continuously evolving to meet the needs of the organization.
Conclusion
Maintaining a changelog for a design system is an essential practice that promotes collaboration, transparency, and effective communication. By following the tips outlined in this article, you can establish a well-structured and comprehensive changelog that keeps all stakeholders informed about the evolution of your design system. Remember, a well-maintained changelog serves as a valuable resource that enables teams to make informed decisions and ensures the continued success of your design system.
Let us know what you think about our What’s New feature on our Twitter, our Slack community or directly to our team by reaching out to Lewis or booking a slot in his agenda!