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USWDS: The United States Web Design System

designsystem.digital.gov

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Re: USWDS: The United States Web Design System

#121

Post by warpech »

astroalex wrote: post #68
warpech wrote: post #45

The term "design system" made a great career in a very short time. It wasn't really coined until 2016.

That's not correct. A quick search using Google's Ngram viewer shows that "design system" peaked in 1986, and had quite a long history before that too, starting in the 1960s. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=design+system&...

Are you sure about the meaning though? Afaik, it started to be used in the context of UX/UI starting from the book "Atomic Design". That is also the earliest reference in the Wikipedia article.

Of course, there were systems in graphic design used earlier [1], but before 2016, the thing in the OP would be called "The US Web Design Patterns" or "...Language" or "...Toolkit" or "...Library", for the lack of a common term.

[1] http://assets.runemadsen.com/classes/programming-design-syst...

Re: USWDS: The United States Web Design System

#122

Post by riedel »

IgorPartola wrote: post #115
tablespoon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Especially the contrast/magic number discussion. It's crazy how many user interfaces these days blur design elements to where you can't tell were controls are. The recent trend to eliminate window title bars is particularly infuriating, but buttons that don't look like buttons because they blend into the background are another pet peeve - or have light gray on dark gray. Ugh! Contrast serves a purpose! Modern UX de…

Honestly this all sounds very old fart “they don’t build them like they used to” and “back in my day”. That isn’t to say I disagree with the sentiment entirely. But: A hidden button doesn’t clutter up what the user interacts with so long as the user knows how to find the button. I like clever interfaces after I figure them out. I don’t like them before because they make me feel stupid. But as soon as they make me fee…

The problem starts if you have to make assumptions about the ability of the user to figure things out. Smart user interfaces too often leave people behind because it is far too complicated to test UX for discrimination. Good design guidelines like the OP help. However, I agree there is the slight possibility for smart UX: First build it with your grandma and a user with a switch input in mind (a11y personas) and let the kids do the learning curve...

Re: USWDS: The United States Web Design System

#123

Post by [deleted] »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #54
mardifoufs wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait why is the UK gov using a netlify.app link? I'm not a web dev so I'm not sure if that's common or more convenient

They're not, dunno where that other link came from but it's not the official. Sneaky https://design-system.service.gov.uk/components/

[deleted]

Re: USWDS: The United States Web Design System

#124

Post by nojs »

schappim wrote: post #106

Australia /has/had/ a similar design system: https://designsystem.gov.au/

> The Australian Government Design System has been decommissioned and will be taken down on 30th Sep 2021. Visit our community page for more information

And the “community page” link is dead. This is sad, both because it was abandoned and also because of how much time and money must have gone to waste.

Re: USWDS: The United States Web Design System

#125

Post by SnoozingBoa »

Few points after reading the comments. From designer pov:

- Although the definition of a Design System is somewhat loose, it can be stated that Bootstrap is a NOT a design system. - To reduce Design System to a branded collection of technical assets is simplistic. You are still not getting it. - The general idea of Design Systems is much more than organising some components for one medium (web). The execution of the system might or might not be good. - In order to do design (UX, UI, ...), you don't need to be "a designer". However, the fact that it is possible to use something like Bootstrap does not make your design (outcome) work automatically. More often that not, the work done by non-designer is not as good. The craft exists. Thinking that "the problem has been solved already" means you don't actually understand the full problem. Like with anything, some aspects are re-solved continuously. Maybe unnecessarily. Maybe not. - For many it would probably be easier to think that all design is design. Any act of diminishing some aspect of design can be mirrored by asking yourself if you think your design tasks can be done by anyone not paying appropriate attention. E.g. if you are a programmer, imagine a random stakeholder would quickly put together your data models and API designs and call it a day. Would it work? Would it scale? Would it be enough? Maybe. - Any design can be challenged. Complaining about stakeholders is lame. Check your argumentation skills and asses if you have actually challenged the design when you had the opportunity.

Re: USWDS: The United States Web Design System

#126

Post by darekkay »

chockchocschoir wrote: post #64
EricE wrote: post #18

Anyone with any part in designing user interfaces seriously needs to commit their section on color to heart: https://designsystem.digital.gov/design-tokens/color/overvie... Especially the contrast/magic number discussion. It's crazy how many user interfaces these days blur design elements to where you can't tell were controls are. The recent trend to eliminate window title bars is particularly infuriating, but button…

> Especially the contrast/magic number discussion Speaking about accessibility, who came up with that name "magic number"? It's already an overloaded term with multiple meanings and even has one negative one (for constants that has seemingly "magic" meaning or not a fully understood one). Even something like "contrast ratio" would be immediate to come up with, and much better name as it actually says something on the…

Contrast ratio is not a good name to describe this concept. A contrast ratio is a decimal number, while a "magic number" is an ordinal value. Also, a contrast ratio has a clear definition from WCAG perspective, and it would be even more confusing to use the same term for two very related topics (magic numbers are based on WCAG contrast ratios).

"Magic number" is not good either, for the reasons you've mentioned. But while doing my research for this topic, I couldn't find any better alternative, nor did I want to come up with my own term. I think this topic is niche enough, so we don't have to overthink it.

Re: USWDS: The United States Web Design System

#127

Post by scim-knox-twox »

tablespoon wrote: post #41
EricE wrote: post #18

Anyone with any part in designing user interfaces seriously needs to commit their section on color to heart: https://designsystem.digital.gov/design-tokens/color/overvie... Especially the contrast/magic number discussion. It's crazy how many user interfaces these days blur design elements to where you can't tell were controls are. The recent trend to eliminate window title bars is particularly infuriating, but button…

> Especially the contrast/magic number discussion. It's crazy how many user interfaces these days blur design elements to where you can't tell were controls are. The recent trend to eliminate window title bars is particularly infuriating, but buttons that don't look like buttons because they blend into the background are another pet peeve - or have light gray on dark gray. Ugh! Contrast serves a purpose! Modern UX de…

> It's kind of sad when the supposed experts choose to badly screw up stuff that had already been figured out.

Most "experts" I meet know... nothing. They don't know basics of their jobs, they don't think how their design / code will have effect for people other then... them.

Re: USWDS: The United States Web Design System

#129

Post by yreg »

topspin wrote: post #84
chess_buster wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

filter: invert, huerotate(180deg);

If only it were really that simple.

Dark mode can be very challenging, especially alignment-wise if the design system is used in applications that also use some custom components or styling.

Re: USWDS: The United States Web Design System

#130

Post by gherkinnn »

warpech wrote: post #45

The term "design system" made a great career in a very short time. It wasn't really coined until 2016.

Nope, I've worked with and on design systems since 2010.

And Brad Frost's Atomic Design [0], a formal system for developing a design system, was first written in 2013.

0 - https://bradfrost.com/blog/post/atomic-web-design/

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