A design system good enough for government work

Building the USWDS – a design system for the federal government.


Background

The U.S. Web Design system was started as a set of design principles and visual style guide for U.S. government websites. Since its inception it has grown into a full-fledged design system and component library that has gone on to power billions of page views in just a few years.

Screenshots

U.S. Web Design System

Chicago Design Systems Meetup Talk

In September 2017 I spoke at the Chicago Design Systems Meetup about the current state of the USWDS and design systems in government.

Project Resources

Research

August Listening Tour – In Summer 2016 we traveled to DC to visit some of the developers using our design system.

Sites

Main site – The main USWDS site contains all of our documentation, guidance, installation instructions, and updates. The site is built in Jekyll.

Components site – The USWDS components site is built using Fractal.

Open Source Repos

U.S. Web Design System

U.S. Web Design System Documentation Site

U.S. Web Design System Assets