Learn the U.S. Web Design System basics, how to get started with the design system, and what’s coming next for USWDS in 2025.
2025
Design
Understand how and why design impacts user experience.
Guidance, resources, and community to help you use design to create government websites that meet customer needs, work well on any device, and follow federal web requirements.
Related Policy
21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act and OMB M-23-22
Design: Essential knowledge
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An introduction to federal website standards
Understand how and why to use the federal website standards. The standards cover common visual technical elements and reflect user experience best practices.
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An introduction to design
How to design government websites that meet customer needs, work well on any device, and follow federal web requirements.
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An introduction to design systems
If your organization needs to ensure compliance with a design standard or align to a brand, a design system can help you achieve those goals more easily than building a site from scratch.
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USWDS design principles
Earn trust by following consistent design principles.
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Understanding design in 10 questions
Learn how the discipline of design can help your agency improve customer experience.
Design events
The U.S. Web Design System team will share their exploration of Web Component-based design systems and best practices.
Watch Video
2024
The U.S. Web Design System team will answer community questions and give an update on their work developing web components for the design system.
Watch Video
2024
The U.S. Web Design System team will give an update on their work developing web components for the design system.
Watch Video
2024
The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) team will chat with Center for Civic Design co-founder Whitney Quesenbery about designing accessible civic spaces.
Watch Video
2024
Design news
Reduce, remove, remediate: PDFs and government websites
In a recent governmentwide community discussion, we shared tips to remediate the use of PDFs on government websites, focusing on balancing needs, choosing formats, starting fixes, and ensuring documents are accessible for everyone.
Making the case for human-centered design: A Department of Justice case study
The Access DOJ initiative shares nine lessons on making services more accessible, effective, and efficient.
Delivering a digital-first public experience: One agency’s plan
Learn how the U.S. General Services Administration is tackling the 100+ requirements of OMB memo M-23-22, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience.
How the Open Data, Design, and Development team implemented state and offshore region navigation pages with hallway testing
User feedback is key to creating great digital products, but limited resources can hinder research efforts. Hallway testing provides a quick, useful solution. By conducting informal interviews, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior gathered insights to improve navigation to state and offshore region pages on the Natural Resources Revenue Data website. After testing prototypes, the best option was implemented, streamlining access white minimizing resource use. The team’s next steps include monitoring performance, evaluating the addition of maps on select pages, and continued hallway testing. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
A journey of improvement: Creating a self-assessment for digital experience
Memo M-23-22 from the Office of Management and Budget provides guidance to federal agencies on delivering a digital-first public experience. To quantify its compliance with the memo, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior created and conducted a self-assessment of its digital products. The team used a scoring spreadsheet to measure compliance across categories like accessibility, design consistency, and mobile responsiveness. The results helped the team develop a plan to prioritize improvements and engage with leadership for support on other initiatives. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Resources on Design
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California wildfires guidance for U.S. government websites and social media
Addressing web and digital communications related to the California wildfires.
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An introduction to data visualization
Use data visualization to communicate insights, tell a story, and share actionable information.
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An introduction to federal website standards
The federal website standards help agencies provide high-quality, consistent digital experiences for everyone.
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An introduction to design
How to design government websites that meet customer needs, work well on any device, and follow federal web requirements.
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An introduction to design systems
If your organization needs to ensure compliance with a design standard or align to a brand, a design system can help you achieve those goals more easily than building a site from scratch. Learn how a design system can help you and what you need to know to get started.
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Lessons from the 2021 Federal Plain Language Report Card
This event recap highlights best practices, a short case study video, and examples of federal web content that received both high and low scores in the 2021 Plain Language Report Card.
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Multilingual Huddle: Designing for Translation
In this webinar, Laura Godfrey and Fedora Braverman share tips for translating content in the digital context.
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Deceptive Design: How to Identify and Combat Consequence Design
Consequence design is part of everyday life. Techniques like “deceptive patterns” and “hostile design” trick people into taking unintended actions — learn how to prevent them from sneaking into our design work.
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Making the big move: Search in support of federal web modernization
In this special report, we discuss a website redesign’s nine phases and their impact on search.
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Best Practices for Writing for the Accessible Web
Tips for making online information accessible for those with auditory and visual needs.
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The basics of human-centered design in government
How the Lab at OPM drives innovation through design education
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U.S. Web Design System
A design system for the federal government that makes it easier to build accessible, mobile-friendly government websites for the American public.
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An Introduction to USWDS 3.0
A design system for the federal government that makes it easier to build accessible, mobile-friendly government websites for the American public.
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Revised 508 Standards Roadmap
Follow the Revised 508 Standards to ensure your information and communication technology (ICT) is accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities.
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Accessibility for Teams
A guide to making products more accessible for everyone.
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USWDS Maturity Model
How to adopt the design system incrementally and design and build better digital experiences.
More News and Events on Design
134 posts
Learn the U.S. Web Design System basics, how to get started with the design system, and what’s coming next for USWDS in 2025.
2025
Reduce, remove, remediate: PDFs and government websites
In a recent governmentwide community discussion, we shared tips to remediate the use of PDFs on government websites, focusing on balancing needs, choosing formats, starting fixes, and ensuring documents are accessible for everyone.
Making the case for human-centered design: A Department of Justice case study
The Access DOJ initiative shares nine lessons on making services more accessible, effective, and efficient.
Delivering a digital-first public experience: One agency’s plan
Learn how the U.S. General Services Administration is tackling the 100+ requirements of OMB memo M-23-22, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience.
The U.S. Web Design System team will share their exploration of Web Component-based design systems and best practices.
Watch Video
2024
How the Open Data, Design, and Development team implemented state and offshore region navigation pages with hallway testing
User feedback is key to creating great digital products, but limited resources can hinder research efforts. Hallway testing provides a quick, useful solution. By conducting informal interviews, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior gathered insights to improve navigation to state and offshore region pages on the Natural Resources Revenue Data website. After testing prototypes, the best option was implemented, streamlining access white minimizing resource use. The team’s next steps include monitoring performance, evaluating the addition of maps on select pages, and continued hallway testing. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
A journey of improvement: Creating a self-assessment for digital experience
Memo M-23-22 from the Office of Management and Budget provides guidance to federal agencies on delivering a digital-first public experience. To quantify its compliance with the memo, the Open Data, Design, and Development team at the Department of the Interior created and conducted a self-assessment of its digital products. The team used a scoring spreadsheet to measure compliance across categories like accessibility, design consistency, and mobile responsiveness. The results helped the team develop a plan to prioritize improvements and engage with leadership for support on other initiatives. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
The U.S. Web Design System team will answer community questions and give an update on their work developing web components for the design system.
Watch Video
2024
The U.S. Web Design System team will give an update on their work developing web components for the design system.
Watch Video
2024
The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) team will chat with Center for Civic Design co-founder Whitney Quesenbery about designing accessible civic spaces.
Watch Video
2024
One year with the new USAGov
It has been a year since USA.gov and USAGov en Español were relaunched using human-centered design principles. Using task backlog, the USAGov team has addressed content gaps, improved discoverability, and implemented technical updates. Through usability tests, visitor comments, and click behavior the team was able to unravel and respond to user feedback and unmet needs, leading to noticeable increases in visitor satisfaction and task accomplishment. Moving forward, the focus will shift to enhancing public engagement with the government, improving the search for benefits-related content, and exploring interactive and personalized user experiences. — via USA.gov
The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) team will go over some basics of Web Components and how they apply to the design system.
Watch Video
2024
Justice department to publish final rule to strengthen web and mobile app access for people with disabilities
On April 8, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland signed a final rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure the accessibility of web content and mobile applications for people with disabilities. This final rule clarifies the obligations of state and local governments to make their websites and mobile applications accessible. Learn more about this rule and why the Attorney General believes it will “break down barriers that have kept people with disabilities from fully participating in American Life.” — via Department of Justice
How USAGov uses data to improve content
Each month, USAGov’s content designers spend many hours ensuring that the content on USA.gov and USAGov en Español is up-to-date, accurate, and meets user needs. Learn how their team does holistic reviews of each topic section based on a rolling calendar with the goal of updating all content at least every 6 months. — via USA.gov
Join the U.S. Web Design System team for a lesson on customizing and extending the design system.
Watch Video
2024
Search.gov year in review: 2023 report
Learn what types of information people searched for on federal websites in 2023, see emerging trends the team is exploring to improve customers’ search experience in 2024, and check out three new updates. The data tab provides insightful summaries for 13 popular topic areas—and lists the public’s top 25 search terms, in their own words, for each. — via Search.gov
Annual Gathering
Spring 2024 Community Summit
Digital service experts across the federal government will share case studies and best practices on delivering a digital-first public experience.
2024
Learn about the USWDS component lifecycle, and how you can suggest a new component.
Watch Video
2024
Maximizing impact of federal websites: Integrating metrics with annual goals and policies
The Open Data, Design, and Development (ODDD) team discusses how OMB’s recent memo, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience (M-23-22), inspired them to reassess their metrics plan to harmonize with policies governing federal public websites. — via Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Customer experience and human-centered design
Customer experience is the application of design within a business context to craft the human experience.
