Last week, I briefly touched on style guides. As a followup to that post, I put together an EasyStyleGuide template as an example for those of your unfamiliar with style guides. As you review this document it is important to keep a few things in mind.
This is a living document
Things will change during the life a project. It is important that everyone know that this document can be updated and should be challenged if the group does not agree on the guidelines within.
Every style guide is different
Each project is going to have a different look and feel. Priorities change based on client needs and wants, and these documents are likely to get better as you become more experienced using them.
Version control is imperative
Style guides are typically used when more than one person is contributing. At the bottom right of the sample document, there is a date indicating when it was last updated. Contributors need an easy way to say “Hey, I did something to this document” to make sure everyone is working on the most recent version of each document.
What else would you add to this style guide? Let’s keep this conversation going in the comments below!
