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The United States Now Has an Official Design Language

Kevin Whipps Last updated: April 9, 2024 · 2 min read

You know who likes standards? The government. And just recently they came up with a new set of standards for the web, called, appropriately enough, U.S. Web Design Standards.

Why should you care? Well let’s use what the website itself says as an example (emphasis ours):

Built and maintained by U.S. Digital Service and 18F designers and developers, this resource follows industry-standard web accessibility guidelines and reuses the best practices of existing style libraries and modern web design. It provides a guide for creating beautiful and easy-to-use online experiences for the American people.

So basically, if you design websites, maybe you should give this a peek.

Once you do check out the Standards Guide, you can find yourself falling down the rabbit hole pretty quick. There’s a whole section on typography, with pairings and styles that show you how the page will perform and the advantages of that particular setup.

Get to digging through the site, because this is pretty cool stuff. Immensely geeky, yes, but very cool.

Kevin Whipps is a writer and editor based in Phoenix, Arizona. When he’s not working on one of the many writing projects in his queue, he’s designing stickers with his wife at Whipps Sticker Co.

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Kevin Whipps

Hi! My name is Kevin Whipps, and I'm a writer and editor based in Phoenix, Arizona. When I'm not working taking pictures of old cars and trucks, I'm either writing articles for Creative Market or hawking stickers at Whipps Sticker Co.

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10 Comments
  • Cool but tax dollars should not be used for this type of stuff. We have low and middle class people struggling and that money could be used to help these people. 11 years ago
  • @Derek Stevenson given sites like healthcare.org and the problems that are encountered when they aren't done right, I would posit that this project helps those people. Both federal and state governments have a really rough history with web design and development. The sooner they figure it out, the sooner they can disseminate information and services online to the masses. Furthermore, standardization can definitely save taxpayer money as it prevents each agency from paying for a unique design schema to be created by a professional agency. 11 years ago
  • I have to disagree with you here Josh. The healthcare website encountered problems that had to do with backend programming and API connections, not design aesthetics. The site was rushed and didn't have the proper testing in place prior to it being released, again this has nothing to do with design. I use Government websites everyday while working in the higher education sector, the majority of these websites look like crap but they load very fast and they don't have a lot of fluff, you get in and out with the bare essentials. This is what cutting costs is all about, not adding in extra! You have to hire agencies to build many of these sites and if you require an agency to use a set of standards that have bugs (which this crap does have plenty, just look at the github issues) then you end up spending more money due to them having to create hacks and find work-a-rounds. Again, I do not agree with tax dollars being spent on this. You know how many people don't even have computers or technology to access this site? Go look at the statistics, there are a ton of people who can't find jobs right now, this wasted tax dollars not helping them out one bit, it is only adding fuel to the fire which is running this country into a very steep hole. 11 years ago
  • It's not just an aesthetics exercise. There are quite a few important requirements for developers of government websites: https://playbook.cio.gov 11 years ago
  • I've went through the entire site. I see there are checklists and requirements for project managers but what Government Agency is going to monitor and govern that these rules are being followed? I'm just curious to know how much money was spent on this entire project. Just asking, because recently in the county I live in they just fired over 500 police officers and fire fighters. 11 years ago
  • Is it just me or do I see a lot of Bootstrap in this project? 11 years ago
  • I see a lot of Yoothemes UIKIT's grid. UIKit has a div class opening with "uk-grid". US web has "usa-grid" Then each column: UIKIT has a div class (eg 50/50) "uk-width-1-1". US web has "usa-width-one-half". http://getuikit.com/ 11 years ago
  • Seems like a lot of inspiration was taken from theguardian.com? 11 years ago
  • Derek - I have a friend who is working to escape poverty here in the United States. Weekly paperwork for you and I (utility bills and such) is maybe 10% of what low-income people have to deal with. And it's all online. Actually, the first step is to get access to a machine (cheap computer or public library), then print massive amounts of documents, then fill them out, then drive or mail them to someplace across town or in another city. Then repeat weekly or monthly. By hook or crook they acquire the technology (it's not optional), but the online interface should be way less painful than it is. 11 years ago
  • Access to government services and information must be available to all. Plain language and good design ensures this. It means that people can get the right help, sooner, with less stress. That's good thing. I can't comment on the specifics of the standards as I haven't finished reading them yet, but they are a great initiative. 11 years ago