Reference Design Systems Updated 2026

Government Design Systems

The federal government requires accessible, consistent interfaces for all public-facing websites. USWDS is the baseline. Most agencies extend it. This is a working reference of what they have published.

What is a government design system?

Federal agencies, state governments, and major cities publish their UI standards as open-source design systems. The goal is consistency across services: a veteran looking up benefits, a taxpayer filing a return, and a patient navigating healthcare.gov should encounter the same accessible patterns, the same interaction model, the same visual language.

In 2017, OMB Memo M-17-06 formalized this requirement. Every federal executive-branch website must follow the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS). That memo made USWDS the required baseline for .gov properties. Most federal design systems today are either USWDS directly or agency-specific extensions with specialized components layered on top.

  • ▸USWDS adoption is not optional for federal executive agencies. It is policy.
  • ▸Section 508 compliance is a legal requirement. Accessibility is not a feature tier.
  • ▸Most state systems emerged after USWDS. Some extend it; others parallel it independently.

Key Federal Systems

U.S. Web Design System (USWDS)

Maintained by GSA / TTS

The canonical baseline for federal .gov websites. Version 3.x made design tokens the central architectural concept: color, spacing, and typography are all tokenized so agencies can theme consistently without forking the system. The component library covers accordions, step indicators, in-page navigation, and dozens more patterns. Documentation includes detailed accessibility rationale for every component, not just a WCAG checkbox result.

VA Design System (VADS)

Maintained by VA OCTO

Built on USWDS and maintained by the VA's Office of the Chief Technology Officer. The VA serves around 9 million enrolled veterans. VADS extends the federal baseline with healthcare-specific patterns: status indicators for benefit claims, multi-step form flows for applications, alert types suited to sensitive medical contexts. The component library ships as a web component package so teams can adopt individual pieces without taking on the full framework.

CMS Design System

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Built for healthcare.gov, Medicare.gov, and related CMS properties. Section 508 compliance here is not aspirational; it has enforcement consequences. The CMS Design System documents accessibility expectations alongside every component: specific keyboard interaction patterns, expected screen reader behavior, and color contrast ratios. Worth studying for any team building accessible healthcare or benefits interfaces.

State Systems in Practice

State-level design systems vary sharply in maturity and approach. Some are rigorous open-source projects with component libraries and governance processes; others are style guides in PDF form with no code. Here is how the most active ones compare.

California

The most mature state design system outside of major federal agencies. Built on web components and maintained by the Office of Digital Innovation. It diverges significantly from USWDS in token naming and component API, so teams moving between federal and California work need to re-learn both. The CA Design System has strong documentation and a public roadmap, which is rare at the state level.

Massachusetts

Mayflower is one of the oldest state design systems, maintained since 2016. It supports both React and Twig templates, reflecting the reality that state government CMS environments are often Drupal-based. The dual-template architecture adds maintenance overhead but makes it practical for agencies that cannot switch stacks.

New York

The NYS Design System launched more recently and follows a more modern architecture than Mayflower. It is closely aligned with accessibility standards and maintains a public Figma library alongside the code components.

Texas

Texas web standards are maintained by the Department of Information Resources (DIR) and apply to all state agency digital properties. Unlike California or New York, Texas does not publish an open-source component library. Implementation is largely agency-driven, which produces more variance across texas.gov properties than you see in states with a centralized system.

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