[New Process Improvement Need]: Design System

[riverma]

Checked for duplicates

Yes - I've already checked

Category

Information Sharing - documentation design, templates, communication, etc.

Describe the need

We have a need for a recommendation on a design system(s) for projects to leverage for consistent user interfaces. Having a consistent design system across user interfaces can aid in the seamless user experience between multiple NASA sponsored projects.

[riverma]

Some guidance from AERIE's @duranb:

• This is the design repo: https://github.com/nasa-jpl/stellar
• This is the React implementation of the design: https://github.com/nasa-jpl/react-stellar
• This is the npm package for the above: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@nasa-jpl/react-stellar

[riverma]

@duranb @mattdailis @joswig - curious how would you compare Stellar with the following other design systems?

• https://designsystem.digital.gov
• https://github.com/bruffridge/nasawds

[riverma]

CC @tariqksoliman @anilnatha @Scotchester

[Scotchester]

Thanks for the tag, @riverma!

My team (DesignLab) maintains the official JPL Design System, Explorer 1. It is currently geared more toward content-driven websites than application user interfaces, though.

[tariqksoliman]

The NASA Web Modernization team promotes the Horizon Design System

[riverma]

Thanks @tariqksoliman @Scotchester! Fascinating - there are so many design systems at play, multiple even at JPL. Do you all have thoughts on whether having multiple design systems is a duplication of effort or whether each actually serves unique use cases? Should SLIM be recommending one or several to software teams?

[Scotchester]

Speaking only for myself, not my team or anyone else, I think that in an ideal world, JPL digital products would all be able to use a single design system, but this is currently not feasible due to Explorer 1 not having appropriate components for high-density application UIs, and Stellar not having components for content-driven websites.

Given budget/labor availability in the current environment, that sort of unification is unlikely to happen anytime soon, so yes, in the short term, I think recommending either Explorer 1 or Stellar makes sense, depending on the needs of the product.

And if a product is a broader NASA effort, it should certainly use the Horizon Design System, however there is not currently an open-source implementation of it. The only implementation that has been done is quite specific to the WordPress-based new NASA.gov, and it's not publicly visible, even to the general NASA community.

[riverma]

Thanks for your thoughts @Scotchester.