govuk-design-system-backlog VS uswds

It depends on the level of contribution.

You can contribute by responding to the discussions in the backlog[0], by improving the actual distributed styles and code[1] or suggesting improvements to the documentation in the link I posted above.

Bigger changes need to be backed up with user research, evidence of user needs and accessibility reviews and checks.

[0] https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-design-system-backlog

[1] https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-frontend

You'll find lots of info in the gov.uk design system backlog and on the accessibility blog.

the Design System component backlog. There' is an absolute wealth of accessibility information and user research in there

In my case in the U.K. the passport office telephoned me once, for my first digital passport in the 1990s, asking rather apologetically if they'd mind them putting X's in the first name since their computer system couldn't cope with it being empty. Whereas the U.K. Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA) has no problem at all and shows my legal name correctly.

Two annoying exceptions (not strictly government created/operated) are the internal (local) NHS registration system and some local authority (local council) electoral role (voter registration) systems that do it badly - usually due to having bought in an external 'enterprise' application to handle it, or trying to interface many disparate systems.

Generally, over the last 25+ years, I've found government organisations are great at handling these corner cases but random private sector / out-sourced development is worst.

Getting traction to get things fixed is the hardest part - being treated as dumb (usually by first-line support and their 'managers') when I set out a clear case and rationale for the bug and how to fix it has to be amongst my least favourite voluntary community-spirited endeavours. The short-cut I apply there, now, is a an email CC-ed to the organisation head (chair, CEO) and senior legal person.

There is an up-side to it though - I rarely if ever suffer any kind of spam or phishing and anyone trying identity theft will have to have much more determination than me to overcome all the obstacles :P

[0] https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/email-addresse...

[1] https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-design-system-backlog/issu...

[2] https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/names/

[3] https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/

The short answer is that the native date inputs aren't accessible. They don't work nicely with all assistive technology like JAWS.

There's more of a discussion here

https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-design-system-backlog/issu...

A recent example of this is the conversation around the use of an accordion where we should a step back, and change how we present the information.

Now and then I stumble upon the USWDS (the article mentions it) and am surprised how good that thing actually is.

I would like to note that there currently is no centralized Design System for the Dutch Government, unfortunately. All agencies are creating their own Design System based on the Rijkshuisstijl.

Currently I'm working on ROOS (https://rvo.nl/roos) which is the Design System for the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. This is build with the already mentioned NL Design System. My hope being that this will bring the different agencies together and start working on a centralized Design System for the Dutch Government and follow the excellent examples of https://design-system.service.gov.uk and https://designsystem.digital.gov/

I learnt a lot of Sass patterns from using the US Web Design System.

USWDS: https://designsystem.digital.gov/

FYI I recommend following U.S. gov't standards: https://designsystem.digital.gov/documentation/developers/

Dark/light mode is fine and all, however be wary of accessibility. Note that the US actually even publishes it's own CSS/JS framework similar to bootstrap. I believe (but I am not positive) it is here: https://designsystem.digital.gov/

I don't claim it to be perfect, but the last time I had the opportunity to use it, it put other UI/UX frameworks to shame.