When we launched the public beta of the NSW Design System in December 2018, we had no idea that what we delivered as a test-and-learn product would become one of the most talked about whole of government projects in NSW. Since launch we have been talking to you, our users, and we have learned that not only is the NSW Design System needed, it’s in demand. Teams can finally access a single source of truth for delivering digital things.
Our research has identified 3 distinct groups within government for which the NSW Design System meant different things.
- Teams with less digital experience within government that are thirsty for knowledge, guidance and a community to help support them delivering digital things.
- High digital capability teams who wanted to share what they’ve learned, collaborate and contribute back to reduce design and development time and cost as teams build the same components over and over.
- External service providers delivering products and services for government agencies needing direction and approval on style, brand, templates, patterns and reusable components.
Our research has shown us that we needed to keep going. So far, we have delivered only a taste of what is possible to facilitate transformation across whole of government digital products and services
Our upcoming plans for scaling the NSW Design System are addressing the following friction points our users are facing when delivering digital products and services. Watch this space, there’s more to come.
Design Guidelines
How might we create Digital Design Guidelines to empower agencies and their partners so they can design and build with confidence, supporting simple, consistent and seamless user experiences for the people of NSW.
The NSW Government Brand Guidelines released in 2017 did not include brand requirements for digital services.
We carried out work to identify how to extend the existing brand into the digital space. As a result, we established NSW Government digital design foundations, including typography, colour, grids, layout and breakpoints. Additionally, global UI elements for the header, navigation and footer were created so websites would look and feel distinctly NSW.
These new guidelines provide the digital brand direction and are set to be published on the NSW Design System in a couple of weeks.
UI Pattern library
How might we create an extensible UI Pattern library so that creators can create, unified, trusted, inclusive and audience centered digital experiences for our users that are clearly simple, current and purposeful.
One of the key features of design systems worldwide is the ability for users to make contributions back into the system.
We've done the same thing in NSW. We have started with some ready-made designs from collaborators across the NSW Government. The designs already have the distinctly NSW look and feel, and meet the new Digital Design Guidelines – perfect for us to build on to develop whole of government patterns.
We have established a new design committee to collaborate and review the designs as they are developed. Service designers, UX/UI leads and product managers from all departments of NSW Government provide input and feedback into the designs and help to prioritise what to build first.
As part of this project, we have also implemented the ability for agencies to customise and bring their own distinct brand flavour into the Design System, without compromising the consistency and usability of the patterns.
It goes without saying that each pattern must be responsive and accessible to WCAG 2.1 AA standards. To ensure the pattern library met user needs, we conducted testing to ensure common task-based scenarios could be completed successfully on both desktop and mobile devices. This testing group included a range of users – including people with vision impairment, people with low literacy, and older people – to ensure we were meeting the 'Design with users, for users' standard of the Design System.
We will continue to develop these patterns and a new Starter Kit template over the next couple of months, to make it easier for creators to deliver distinctly NSW products and services.
Community
How might we bring together the users of the design system, to learn, collaborate and share expertise so that we can build capability across NSW Government.
“Much as we believe that we are most productive in our little silos, the fundamental fact remains that humans are social animals. By denying the opportunity to collaborate and cross-pollinate ideas, businesses contribute to their own speedy demise.” - Pratik Dholakiya
While the pattern library might be the building blocks of the Design System, the community is the heart. The community will open up previously closed channels between service designers, developers, writers and designers who are building digital things, to ensure they are all speaking the same language, not only between floors, but across the state.
The community will help create a level playing field, making new skills and experience available to those who are looking to build capability. And it will provide a channel for those with expertise to contribute and become ambassadors of their craft.
The seed of our community has been planted, please join us.