How do you know what UI component to choose? Decision trees offer a systematic approach for design teams to document their design decisions. Once weve decided what UI components we use and when, we can avoid never-ending discussions, confusion, and misunderstanding.Lets explore a few examples of decision trees for UI components and how we can get the most out of them.This article is part of our ongoing series on design patterns. Its also an upcoming part of the 10h-video library on Smart Interface Design Patterns and the upcoming live UX training as well. Use code BIRDIE to save 15% off.B2B Navigation and Help Components: DoctolibDoctolib Design System is a very impressive design system with decision trees, B2B navigation paths, photography, PIN input, UX writing, and SMS notifications and thorough guides on how to choose UI components.B2B Navigation Patterns Decision TreeForm Components Decision TreeActions and Calls To Actions Decision TreeError Design Decision TreeHelp Component Decision TreeI love how practical these decision trees are. Each shows an example of what a component looks like, but I would also add references to real-life UI examples and flows of where and how these components are used. A fantastic starting point that documents design decisions better than any guide would.Decision Trees For UI Components: WorkdayThe team behind Workdays Canvas design system created a fantastic set of design decision trees for notifications, errors and alerts, loading patterns, calls to action, truncation, and overflow with guidelines, examples, and use cases, which can now only be retrieved from the archive:Notifications Decision TreeErrors and Alerts Decision TreeLoading UX Decision TreeCalls to Action Decision TreeTruncation and Overflow Decision TreeFor each decision tree, the Workday team has put together a few context-related questions to consider first when making a decision before even jumping into the decision tree. Plus, there are thorough examples for each option available, as well as a very detailed alternative text for every image.Form Components Decision Tree: LyftA choice of a form component can often be daunting. When should you use radio buttons, checkboxes, or dropdowns? Runi Goswami from Lyft has shared a detailed form components decision tree that helps their team choose between form controls.We start by exploring whether a user can select more than one option in our UI. If its indeed multi-select, we use toggles for short options and checkboxes for longer ones.If only one option can be selected, then we use tabs for filtering, radios for shorter options, a switch for immediately applicable options, and a checkbox if only one option can be selected. Dropdowns are used as a last resort.Choosing Onboarding Components: NewsKitOnboarding comes in various forms and shapes. Depending on how subtle or prominent we want to highlight a particular feature, we can use popovers, badges, hints, flags, toasts, feature cards, or design a better empty state. The Newskit team has put together an Onboarding Selection Prototype in Figma.The choice depends on whether we want to interrupt the users to display details (usually isnt very effective), show a feature subtly during the experience (more effective), or enable discovery by highlighting a feature within the context of a task a user tries to accomplish.The toolkit asks a designer a couple of questions about the intent of onboarding, and then suggests options that are likely to perform best a fantastic little helper for streamlined onboarding decisions.Design System Process Flowcharts: NucleusHow do you decide to add a new component to a design system or rather extend an existing one? Whats the process for contributions, maintenance, and the overall design process? Some design teams codify their design decisions as design system process flowcharts, as shown below.Contribution Process at British GasContributing Guidelines at NordhealthProcesses at AvivaContribution Process at OpenCollectiveContribution Process at ZalandoAnd here are helpful decision trees for adding new components to a design system:New Component Decision Tree at Boston ScientificHandling New Patterns at GitHubDesign System Governance Process by Brad FrostNew Component Decision Tree by Louis OuriachDesign System Contribution Template by Chad BergmanHow To Launch A New Component + Figma template by Rama Krushna BeheraMake Decision Trees VisibleWhat I absolutely love about the decision tree approach is not only that it beautifully visualizes design decisions but that it also serves as a documentation. It establishes shared standards across teams and includes examples to follow, with incredible value for new hires.Of course, exceptions happen. But once you have codified the ways of working for design teams as a decision tree and made it front and center of your design work, it resolves never-ending discussions about UI decisions for good.So whenever a debate comes up, document your decisions in a decision tree. Turn them into posters. Place them in kitchen areas and developers and QA workspaces. Put them in design critique rooms. Make them visible where design work happens and where code is being written.Its worth mentioning that every project will need its own custom trees, so please see the examples above as an idea to build upon and customize away for your needs.Meet Smart Interface Design PatternsIf you are interested in similar insights around UX, take a look at Smart Interface Design Patterns, our 10h-video course with 100s of practical examples from real-life projects with a live UX training later this year. Everything from mega-dropdowns to complex enterprise tables with 5 new segments added every year. 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