CMS Design System

Background

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) wants all teams working on digital projects to build consistent, responsive, and accessible experiences. According to Scott Weber, Managing Staff Designer for the CMS Design System,

“A design system is a collection of reusable components both in design and in code, guided by clear documentation and standards, that can be assembled together to build web experiences and can be easily updated within products.”

Scott argues that CMS’ design system is important because it:

• Allows designers and developers to create quickly and at scale.
• Allows product teams to focus on larger, more complex problems.
• It creates a unified language within and between cross-functional teams and products.
• It creates visual consistency across products, departments, and experiences.
• It can serve as a tool and reference for junior-level product team members.

Further, in a government setting like CMS governed by many isolated contracts, adherence to a design system can increase public trust while reducing taxpayer resource costs.

Getting Started

We encourage you to review the the CMS Design System resources for developers and designers and consider watching an overview presentation from Scott at our May 2022 Community of Practice event. If you need help sharing this resource with your teams or determining best practices for leveraging and contributing to the design system, please reach out to us.

View CMS Design System