[Formerly known as Digital Forms Experience Pack]
We are currently in the third phase of 10x: Development. We estimate this phase will end in June 2020.
Form components currently included within the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) are largely limited to field types necessary to create search, login, and simple contact forms. These components do not address the more sophisticated needs of agencies attempting to migrate complex, paper-based forms to user-friendly online versions.
The 21st Century IDEA (21C) was signed into law in December 2018, and requires that any paper-based form related to serving the public is made available in digital form by December 2020, and further requires compliance with “TTS website standards.” The United States Web Design System (USWDS) maturity model has been formally defined as that standard in January of 2020, making it essential that the USWDS treatment of forms expands to support the more complex and sophisticated needs of agencies moving paper-based forms into the digital realm.
This work will expand the treatment of forms in USWDS to support 21C, by adding more complex and sophisticated structures while supporting key USWDS principles such as accessibility and mobile-friendliness. These additional form components will empower agencies to deliver an exceptional user experience when interacting with the government, as well as meet 21C in spirit and law.
Research participants indicated a strong need for more advanced form controls within the U.S. Web Design System, along with clear guidance on component selection by use case, and more cohesive treatment of accessibility considerations in digital form creation.
In the course of our research, several "missing" high value form components and form helpers were identified, helping inform our wireframing efforts and the guidance that accompanies those components. During the course of our research we also explored how other design systems approached forms. We performed a gap analysis, reviewing 13 public sector design systems and comparing their treatment of forms with the U.S. Web Design System, compiling that analysis in a spreadsheet that can be found within the Deliverables section of this document.
At the conclusion of Phase 2, we worked to identify the highest value form controls to focus on, in order to contain scope to an achievable unit of work. These advanced form controls will include code, guidance on their selection and usage, and accessibility considerations for use. We expect to deliver between five and 12 form controls and their supporting documentation during this engagement as we work in partnership with the USWDS product team.
- June 24, 2019: Phase One Report
- October 21, 2019: Phase Two Kick-off
- January 31, 2020: Phase Two Pitch for Phase 3 Funding (approved)
- March 5, 2020: Phase Three Kick-off
We recommend proceeding to a phase 3.
Phase 3 development.
- Draft USWDS form controls
- Form Component summaries
- Gap analysis of public sector design systems’ form controls
- Product owner: Dan Williams, USWDS
- Stakeholders: IP: Ammie Farraj Feijoo, Jacob Parcell | 10x: Will Cahoe, Nico Papafil
- Project team members: 10x: William Bagayoko, Jared Cunha, Jona Decker, Ben Judy, James Mejia, Sarah Statz
- We are tracking the work for this Phase on our GitHub Project board.
- Any issues or ideas that we want to keep track of for later are being noted in the GitHub issues.
- We will post biweekly progress updates in UPDATES.
A few parts of the USWDS project are not in the public domain. Attribution and licensing information for those parts are described in detail in LICENSE.md.
This rest of this project including this contribution is in the worldwide public domain. As stated in CONTRIBUTING:
This project is in the public domain within the United States, and copyright and related rights in the work worldwide are waived through the CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication.
All contributions to this project will be released under the CC0 dedication. By submitting a pull request, you are agreeing to comply with this waiver of copyright interest.