U.S. Web Design System (USWDS)

Figma design system library: The Federal Standard for Digital Services

The Figma design system library of the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) defines the standard for digital experiences across the federal government. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) actively maintains this crucial resource, which empowers government teams to design and build accessible, consistent, and secure websites. By providing a unified visual style and comprehensive component library, the USWDS ensures that teams integrate quality and compliance directly into their projects.

USWDS Codebase and Technology Stack

The USWDS builds its core on a simple, flexible technology foundation. We base the components on plain HTML, style them using Sass (SCSS), and use JavaScript to manage component behavior. Consequently, this architecture makes the system highly adaptable; project teams can implement it into almost any technology stack without requiring a specific framework. The GSA distributes the code via the widely used npm package manager. For deeper insight into how other enterprise platforms approach their framework choices, we recommend exploring the Carbon Design System’s documentation.

Compliance and Accessible UI Components

The USWDS rigorously enforces compliance throughout the system. Designers and developers build and test all components to meet the high standards of WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility guidelines. Therefore, your project automatically achieves Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act compliance when you correctly implement the components according to the system’s documentation. This robust, built-in compliance significantly reduces the legal and technical burden placed on individual agency teams. Many teams also leverage this standard when building their own internal design systems

Designer Assets and the Figma Design Kit

USWDS directly supports design teams, ensuring seamless collaboration and consistency. The team provides an official Figma design system library, which ensures visual parity between design mockups and coded components. Indeed, this resource is essential for any modern workflow, allowing design work to align immediately with development. Furthermore, the system manages visual styles using Design tokens, which define core values like color, typography, and spacing. You can easily override these tokens using theme settings to incorporate specific agency branding. An active community of government engineers, content specialists, and designers constantly improves the USWDS.