In case you want to build official-looking government sites

Oct 3, 2015 15:05 GMT  ·  By

A team of designers and developers from the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and 18F have put together a set of Web design rules, also known as a style guide, for creating and redesigning official US federal government websites.

While style guides have become a day-to-day tool in the life of a Web developer, and a few have already existed for various government agencies, the U.S. Web Design Standards is set to become the de-facto rulebook for putting together official US government websites from now on.

This so-called standard is just a simple set of rules that come neatly packed as a small documentation site. This site features descriptions and code samples for various UI components and aims to provide a helping hand to developers working on official US websites, if they ever get stuck in the code/UI styles.

While in the past, almost all government websites had a different look, in this modern era where almost everyone has Internet access, a common visual style is needed, so the various Web design agencies contracted by the US government to do Web design work will adhere to the same visual philosophy instead of going rogue and running UI experiments on the US taxpayers' dollars.

Code samples and prototyping tools are included out of the box

Included with the style guide, developers will find 508-compliant colors schemes, a grid system, basic typography rulesets, and common UI components like buttons, forms, menus, labels, alerts, and so on.

But besides code samples that will help developers, the U.S. Web Design Standards also provide prototyping tools for designers, in the form of .AI and .EPS vector files.

In case you spot any problems or bugs, 18F, the Web design agency collaborating with the U.S. Digital Service, is managing a public GitHub repository of the official style guide, where bugs and feature requests are welcome.

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US Web Design Standards (8 Images)

USDS and 18F release official US Web Design Standards
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