8 Examples of Versioning in Leading Design Systems

Design systems are dynamic and ever-changing. Clear versioning is essential to ensure your team works from the same and most updated source of truth. Without proper versioning, teams risk using outdated components, causing inconsistencies and inefficiencies. The best method to apply versioning is using Semantic Versioning (SemVer), a standard that provides clarity about the scale and impact of changes. Check out Nathan Curtis’ awesome series on versioning to learn more. 

SemVer categorizes versions into three segments:

• MAJOR: Incompatible or breaking changes requiring careful planning to ensure stability.
• MINOR: Backwards-compatible new features expanding the system's capabilities.
• PATCH: Backwards-compatible bug fixes addressing issues without introducing new features.

Design systems apply SemVer principles differently, depending on their needs and complexity. Below, we explore three main ways companies version their design systems: major library versioning, incremental library versioning, and component-level versioning.

Major library versioning: Comprehensive updates to the entire system

This approach applies a single version across the entire library, signaling significant changes affecting the whole system. Major updates ensure consistency across components and give users a clear signal of when to transition. Holistic versioning is useful when coordinated updates are necessary to avoid inconsistencies.

IBM’s Carbon

Carbon by IBM employs holistic versioning, releasing major updates that encompass the entire system. This strategy benefits IBM's vast and diverse user base, including large enterprises and complex applications. By bundling significant changes into major releases, Carbon ensures all components are updated consistently, maintaining visual and functional coherence across IBM's products.

This approach allows teams to plan and coordinate the adoption of new versions, minimizing risks from piecemeal updates. Major, well-documented releases provide the necessary stability and comprehensive migration guides for smoother transitions.

Google’s Material UI

Material UI takes a similar approach by bundling large updates into major releases, often with overhauled visual styles or restructured components. This choice ensures stability while encouraging users to adopt improvements over time. As a design system used by Android teams worldwide, focusing on major releases allows for cohesive and well-coordinated improvements. Detailed migration guides help teams upgrade confidently, reducing the risk of errors and inconsistencies.

By delivering substantial updates in well-defined increments, Material UI minimizes fragmentation across Android applications, ensuring a unified user experience aligned with Google's design philosophy. They even have their own explanation of what falls under breaking, minor, and patch updates in their releases page.

Shopify’s Polaris

Similar to other design systems in this group, Polaris releases focus on bigger, wide-spanning updates. Polaris supports a very large number of teams working with Shopify and focusing on major updates helps teams migrate in a stable fashion. 

To help teams update with these huge releases, they have excellent support for migration between one version to the next with an in-depth guide.

Incremental library versioning: Small, frequent improvements

This method involves rolling out smaller, more frequent updates to the design system. It ensures smooth transitions without introducing breaking changes, making it easier for teams to continuously adopt improvements. Incremental versioning suits teams valuing agility and ongoing enhancements over large (and likely more disruptive) updates.

Morningstar Design System

Morningstar Design System follows an incremental update strategy, balancing progress with stability. In the financial industry, where reliability is paramount, this approach allows enhancements without disrupting critical services. Teams can integrate minor improvements steadily, ensuring applications remain secure and compliant with regulations.

Predictable, regular updates help users access the latest improvements without fear of breaking existing implementations. This minimizes risks associated with large-scale changes, maintaining high standards of quality and reliability. They also explain their versioning strategy and guidelines in detail here.

Adobe’s Spectrum

Adobe Spectrum adopts a continuous almost monthly release model, deploying collected smaller changes frequently. Since Adobe's products are widely used by creative professionals demanding stability, this approach minimizes disruptions. Incremental changes allow Adobe to refine components based on user feedback and address issues promptly.

This strategy avoids sudden overhauls, ensuring seamless adoption. Clear communication and release notes enable teams to understand each update's impact and adopt changes as needed, fostering confidence in system stability.

Salesforce’s Lightning Design System

Lightning Design System similarly employs incremental versioning, but the team instead rolls out regular updates as needed rather than every month or collecting bigger releases. This flexibility aligns with Salesforce's need to adapt rapidly while ensuring developers and partners can smoothly adopt enhancements.

By providing incremental updates, Salesforce allows teams to progressively utilize the latest components and patterns. Detailed release notes help developers understand changes and integrate them confidently, supporting continuous improvement while maintaining essential stability.

Component-level versioning: Modular and adaptable releases

With component-level versioning, each feature is versioned individually, allowing teams to mix and match versions. This modularity provides the most flexibility and makes it easier to implement updates without affecting the entire library. It's effective for large systems with diverse user needs, allowing targeted updates and greater control over specific parts.

Twilio’s Paste

Twilio's Paste leverages both core and component-level versioning, enabling teams to update individual components as needed. Since Twilio's products integrate into various applications, updating individual components ensures teams can adopt new features or fixes without overhauling their entire codebase.

This approach minimizes disruption by allowing granular control over updates. Teams can update only the components they need, reducing unintended side effects and maintaining stability. It also allows faster iteration on specific components, enabling quick responses to user feedback or requirements.

Atlassian Design System

Similarly, Atlassian’s design system applies component-based semantic versioning, giving teams clarity about the type and scope of changes. Using SemVer at the component level, teams can see whether an update introduces breaking changes, new features, or bug fixes. Here you can see an older component with its long history of changes:

Compared to a new component still in beta:

This approach ensures transparency, allowing adopters to plan updates effectively. Detailed documentation for each version makes it easy to understand changes, why they matter, and how to implement updates with minimal friction. This clarity is essential for tools supporting collaboration and productivity.

Why versioning matters

Versioning is essential for scalability, predictability, and smooth adoption across teams. Holistic versioning supports large-scale consistency; incremental versioning ensures continuous improvement without disruption; component-level versioning offers targeted flexibility for diverse needs.

Choosing the right strategy ensures design systems remain robust and adaptable. The examples above demonstrate how thoughtful versioning provides clarity and structure, helping teams evolve their products confidently.

By understanding and implementing effective versioning, design system teams can minimize disruptions, reduce errors, and ensure their systems meet user needs. Selecting the right versioning strategy is crucial for the long-term growth and adaptability of design systems and their associated products.