What to Expect in Carbon 10

It’s coming up to the end of the year, when we’d usually schedule a major Carbon Design System release. The team is going to do things a little differently this time around.

Since October, we’ve had an “Experimental” section at carbondesignsystem.com. These new components, elements and patterns build on the updated IBM Design Language, are the next step for the design system, and a major design evolution. In our next major release, these “experimental” resources will be production-ready.

This is a more significant change than usual, so we want to keep everyone informed of our plans.

Carbon v10 Alpha Release

Before the end of the December, we’ll release an alpha version of Carbon v10 which will be available at next.carbondesignsystem.com. It will include;

• Carbon Elements — icons, layout, grid, etc
• New components
• UI Shell

This work isn’t ready for production use, but we want to give you an early preview of what’s coming. As always, we encourage feedback and contributions.

During the alpha availability, we’ll be making updates, adding documentation and guidance. The scope of the release is subject to change.

Carbon v10 Beta Release

In the second half of January, we’ll upgrade our alpha version into a beta release. Which will continue to be available at next.carbondesignsystem.com.

Designers and developers will be able to use these resources with more confidence. The beta version will confirm the scope of the production release. We’ll provide expanded guidance, and updated components, elements, and other resources.

If you’re using a previous version of Carbon, we’ll have more help on transitioning to v10.

You can also expect significant design changes to the Carbon Design System website.

Carbon v10 Production Release

In the early Spring we’ll announce the full production release of Carbon v10. We aim to do this by IBM Think 2019.

The updated website design and content will be live by Think (even if other resources are still in beta). This will coincide with updates to the IBM Design and IBM Design Language websites.

We’ll communicate the release, and offer sessions providing transition and adoption guidance.

Of course, we know people can’t update instantly, so you’ll still be able to access Carbon v9 at v9.carbondesignsystem.com

You might also see a change to the “Carbon” brand as we’ll be more closely integrated with other IBM Design guidance, and the updated IBM Design Language.

But even if we change our name, we’ll still be open-source and community-driven.

Further in the Future

After Carbon v10, we expect to move to a Spring/Fall release schedule. In Summer/Winter we’ll be providing developer and designer previews. So you’ll always know what’s coming down the line in the next release.

If you have any questions, we always want you to reach out. Submit issues in our repos (or contribute code). Email us at carbon@us.ibm.com, or contact us at the @_carbondesign Twitter handle.