Problem statement

Visual designers need to communicate a significant amount of ongoing detail to the development team to describe the intention and implementation of their work. This communication takes time and has a cost, both in traditional capital and emotional capital. The current design system (USWDS) doesn’t yet make this communication simpler or reduce redundancy for visual designers because it’s seen as limited, inflexible, potentially incompatible with project needs, and difficult to integrate into a visual design workflow. Designers want useful constraints to work within — to focus on doing meaningful, valuable work for users, not on reinventing and re-communicating the fiddly pixel detail often required of successful visual design. Developers want a clear, reliable, reusable system that works for them and with them.