Design System Glossary

Component documentation

Component documentation is the live, structured guide to each component in a design system — what it does, when to use it (and when not to), the API reference, accessibility notes, and worked examples. Every mature system has it; many systems fail because nobody owned writing it.

Good docs cover usage and rationale, not just code. Polaris, Carbon and Atlassian all model the format: an opening "when to use" section, an interactive demo, accessibility notes, do's and don'ts in pairs, and links to design files and source. Tools like Storybook, Zeroheight and Supernova generate the structure; the writing is human work, and the most under-invested layer of most systems.