govuk-design-system VS govuk-design-system-backlog

The best design system around[0] operates entirely in the open. You can look through the history, discussions, PRs, framework-specific implementations and see why it's geared the way it is - and why it's incredibly successful.

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

The GitHub you linked isn’t the central design system. The actual one is here https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-design-system

Why reinvent the wheel? A lot of govt websites have very similar use cases. I would e.g. just get The UK Government Design System, which is really good: https://github.com/alphagov/govuk-design-system

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.