Questions about the content design system are user research data
When you’re building a content design system you might occasionally get stuck and not know where to focus next. There are so many components you could create and you likely have limited time to devote to the project. How can you prioritize what to build next?
Look at the questions your design partners ask you about your style guide and content design system materials. You probably receive a lot of questions like these: “Is it OK for me to use an ampersand here?” “Do you have some examples of confirmation modals I could take a look at?” “Do we use this abbreviation, or should I spell it out?”
These questions can feel overwhelming if you receive them constantly, and it’s better for your colleagues to find the answers themselves in the tools you built than ask you directly. But these types of questions provide a wealth of user data, especially if most of your users made an attempt to find what they’re looking for before asking you.
If someone asks you about a topic you haven’t yet addressed in the content design system (and especially if multiple people from different areas of the product ask about the same topic), that’s a great indicator that it might be a valuable addition. Likewise if someone asks about a topic you’ve addressed, but you haven’t yet designed for the aspect they’re asking about, that might be a good opportunity for expansion. It doesn’t mean that you have to get to work on it immediately, but you should consider adding it to your backlog.
If someone’s question is already answered in full in the content design system, that information is just as valuable. It means that you spent time creating content that your users would find valuable, but at least one person couldn't find it and others might have trouble locating it as well. Think about where that content is currently located, how it’s labeled and tagged, and the paths your users might take trying to locate it. Then figure out whether it might be useful to move it to a different section, label/tag it differently, or provide crosslinks to make it easier to find. You’re the designer of the content design system, and you may differ from its users in how you view a given topic, what you call it, and what categories you think it falls into.
Thinking about the questions you receive can also tell you a lot about edge cases you haven't yet accounted for and what might need to be updated or adjusted based on changes in the product, design system, or content team decisions on best practices.
Keep in mind that like the users of the products your company builds, the users of your content design system aren’t always great at telling you what they need. Surveying them about what content design system elements they think they need won’t always provide the most useful information, but looking at what they ask about offers an amazing window into what they actually need to get the job done.
