Calls for service teams to join work in developing new design platform for digital services
The Government Digital Service (GDS) has claimed a significant step in the development of a new design platform for digital services.
It said the GOV.UK Design System, which contains the necessary styles, components and design patterns, has been taken through its alpha phase and is now in beta.
GDS is working on an initial version populated with the existing features which it can use to test and iterate the platform, and is looking at linking it to the front end of GOV.UK.
It is also looking for service teams to work with it on the beta phase and plans to run pilots of different models.
The platform is being developed to bring together existing patterns, components and styles in a single place. Currently many of the features are scattered around sources such as the GOV.UK Service Manual and GOV.UK elements.
GDS plans to make it available as a federated design, under which users can develop their own patterns and contribute them to the main collection.
It said that during the alpha phase – in which it worked with designers, developers and user researchers in a number of government organisations – it reduced the number of categories from five to three, identified the information needed by users and simplified the navigation and search functions.
A blogpost from GDS on the move says: “Ultimately, we want GOV.UK Design System to be something that is owned by the people who use it.”
