Use version history when users need durable snapshots of a document, file, page, or object with current version context, previous version preview, compare, named version, and restore behavior; use activity log for investigative event evidence, timeline for readable chronological milestones, and undo for short recovery from a recent action.
Use version history when users need durable snapshots of a document, file, page, or object with current version context, previous version preview, compare, named version, and restore behavior; use activity log for investigative event evidence, timeline for readable chronological milestones, and undo for short recovery from a recent action.
Practice the judgment: Imagine this situation: Retention limits or deleted author states hide why an expected previous version is unavailable. Write the person's goal, choose one of these patterns, and show the state that helps the person continue. Use the decision rules and source trail below to explain your choice.
Review the underlying principle →| Dimension | Version history | Activity log | Timeline | Undo | Draft state | Publish workflow | Comments | Permission denied state |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UI or UX | UI + UX - Durable snapshot browser for previous document, file, page, object, or configuration versions | UI + UX - Searchable and exportable record of system, user, or administrative events | UI + UX - Bounded chronological record of past, current, or expected events | UX - Post-action recovery behavior | UI + UX - Unpublished object version lifecycle | UI + UX - Workflow for moving edited material to live, staged, scheduled, or retired state | UI + UX - Object-attached comment composer and comment list with authorship, replies, state, permissions, and moderation | UI + UX - Authorization and access-boundary state |
| UI guidance | Render version history as a durable snapshot browser with the current version, previous version list, author, timestamp, named version labels, autosaved version labels, changed summary, retention status, compare affordance, preview, and restore action. | Render activity logs as evidence-oriented records with event time, actor, action, object, source system, scope, result, and technical context such as IP address or location when available. | Render the timeline as a labelled chronological sequence where each event has a visible date or time, event title, actor or system source when known, status or type, and a short summary. | Show a named recovery affordance after the completed action, such as Undo delete for a specific task, near the result or in a consistent status region. | Label the current version explicitly as Draft, Unpublished changes, Published, Active, Locked, or Unavailable, and place that label near the object title, list row, editor header, and publish actions. | Render publish workflow as a readiness and release surface with content identity, current status, target destination, affected pages or entries, preview, validation, permission, schedule, publish, unpublish, rollback, and live verification. | Render comments as anchored contributions with author identity, timestamp, body, optional attachment or selection context, edited state, reply target, and state labels such as open, resolved, hidden, deleted, or assigned. | Show the blocked object or action, current account, permission level, required role, owner, and request path when revealing that information is allowed. |
| UX guidance | Make recovery consequences explicit: what becomes current after restore, what happens to current edits or drafts, whether a restored version creates a new version, which comments or metadata carry forward, and which older versions are hidden by retention or permissions. | Use activity log when users need to investigate, audit, verify, or troubleshoot actions across accounts, objects, systems, settings, or security boundaries. | Use timeline when users need to understand what happened, where they are now, and what may happen next in a case, claim, application, order, incident, or process. | Let users move quickly through frequent reversible actions, then recover from mistakes after seeing the result. | Use draft state when users need to pause work on an object, return later, and decide whether to publish, activate, discard, or keep editing an unpublished version. | Use publish workflow when a user is moving content, product data, site changes, configuration, release notes, or campaign material from draft, staged, scheduled, or approved state to a selected live or public target. | Preserve comment drafts, anchors, authorship, notifications, edit history, deletion outcomes, and resolved or hidden states so conversation context remains trustworthy across reloads, permissions, moderation, and return visits. | Use permission denied state when the system knows the user is authenticated but their role, group, share, license, policy, or approval status blocks a specific object or action. |
| Good UI | A document side panel marks v42 as Current, lists v41, v38 named Pre-launch copy, and v35 autosaved, and opens a compare preview before Restore this version. | An organization audit log table shows timestamp, actor, action, target object, app, IP address, result, and a Details drawer with before and after fields. | A benefits application timeline groups events by date and shows Application submitted, Evidence requested, Evidence received, Decision pending, and Next review, with actor, timestamp, and status marker. | Deleting Quarterly report removes it from the list and shows a recovery panel saying Quarterly report deleted with an Undo task button. | A knowledge article header says Draft saved today, shows the currently published title, and offers Resume draft, Compare with published, Discard draft, and Publish. | A CMS publish panel shows Draft article, production site, English and French locales, validation complete, preview URL, scheduled time, affected entries, and actions to Publish now, Schedule, or Keep draft. | A document margin comment shows the selected paragraph, author, timestamp, body text, Reply, Resolve, Assign, and Copy link actions with the composer focused on that selection. | A report page says Quarterly revenue report requires Finance viewer access, shows the current account, names the report owner, and offers Request access and Switch account. |
| Bad UI | The current version disappears from context while browsing older versions. | An export button downloads a different date range and timezone than the on-screen filtered log. | A dense audit table is squeezed into timeline cards and hides changed fields, exact actor identity, and retention proof. | Undo action disappears before users can activate it. | A draft label is missing from the editor, so users publish or discard the wrong version. | A production publish happens when the user intended staging only. | A Notes textarea sits under a record and calls itself comments even though every user overwrites the same field. | A denial page says Something went wrong and shows Retry even though the user lacks a required group. |
| Good UX | A designer names the last approved file version, compares it against the current version, confirms restore, and sees that the restore created v43 while keeping v42 available. | An admin filters to failed SSO events, expands one entry, copies the event ID, exports the filtered range, and sees that records older than 180 days require a different archive. | A caseworker filters the timeline to System events, sees two date groups hidden, restores all events, and the event order and current marker stay stable. | Undo restores the deleted task to the list and reports Quarterly report restored. | A user opens a published article that has an unpublished version, chooses Resume draft, reviews a change summary, publishes, and sees the page become visible to viewers. | A content editor previews a campaign page, fixes a missing hero image, schedules publication and retirement times, sees the job queued, and later verifies the live URL and scheduled unpublish state. | A reviewer comments on a selected line, adds an action item for Dana, receives a reply, resolves the comment, and can reopen it from the resolved filter. | A user opens a restricted report, sees which account is signed in, requests viewer access with a reason, then sees that the request is pending with the owner. |
| Bad UX | The current version disappears from context while browsing older versions. | A user marks a notification read and the corresponding activity evidence disappears from the only log. | A user sees a future appointment marker styled like completed history and assumes the appointment already happened. | The UI promises undo for a side effect that has already notified external recipients. | A user discards a shared draft and unknowingly removes another editor's unpublished changes. | A user clicks Save and assumes the page is live because the interface uses Save, Submit, Schedule, and Publish interchangeably. | A user writes a long comment, loses network connection, and the draft disappears when the page reloads. | Every workspace control is disabled after one missing permission, including safe navigation and read-only tasks. |
| Best fit | Users edit documents, files, pages, design files, records, configurations, or published content over time. | Users need to inspect recorded user, admin, system, security, or integration events. | Users need a chronological record of important events for one object, case, order, application, or process. | The action is common and mistakes are likely. | Users need to pause and resume unfinished work across sessions, devices, or routes. | Users need to make content, products, pages, releases, site changes, campaigns, or configuration visible to an audience. | Feedback must preserve author, timestamp, reply, resolution, assignment, or moderation context. | A signed-in user lacks permission to view, edit, publish, export, delete, approve, share, administer, or configure a resource. |
| Avoid when | The task is only immediate recovery from one recent action. | The goal is only to show a readable milestone history for one case or process. | The surface is a live stream whose content keeps arriving and must preserve reader position. | Recovery would restore only part of the user's lost work. | The change is a small one-field edit that should be saved or canceled immediately. | The user is only saving unfinished work. | The user is simply entering a long answer into a form field. | The operation failed for network, server, validation, data, or timeout reasons after permission was granted. |
| Required state | Default state with current version, previous version list, author, timestamp, and change summary. | Default log state with event records, result count, visible timezone, retention window, and permission scope. | Default timeline with heading, order label, date or phase groups, and event markers. | Normal state before the user action. | Published or active state with an available draft. | Draft or edited but unpublished state | Empty comment list and first-comment composer. | Whole-object access denied state. |
| Accessibility burden | Use structured list, table, or tab semantics so version number, current status, author, timestamp, and label are read together. | Use table or structured list semantics so actor, action, object, timestamp, result, and scope are perceivable together. | Use semantic list or ordered-list structure with date-group headings and text event labels. | Make the undo control keyboard reachable and programmatically identifiable. | Use headings and status regions so screen reader users know whether they are editing a draft or viewing the active version. | Use labelled controls for status, target, preview, schedule date and time, timezone, validation, publish, unpublish, rollback, and live URL. | Label the comments region with the object or selection being discussed. | Move focus to the permission message when it replaces page content or blocks a workflow. |
| Common misuse | Using a timeline of milestones as a substitute for previewable or restorable versions. | Using vague activity labels that omit actor, action, object, timestamp, or result. | Omitting dates, actors, or event summaries and expecting icons to communicate the sequence. | Restoring only part of the prior state while implying full recovery. | Using Saved to mean both saved draft and published content. | Using Save, Submit, Schedule, and Publish interchangeably. | Using one shared Notes field as a comment system and overwriting prior contributors. | Treating authorization denial as a generic retryable error. |