Helsinki Design System

screenshot of Helsinki Design System
react
scss

Components, principles, documentation and templates for the City of Helsinki design system.

Overview

The Helsinki Design System (HDS) is a collection of components and design elements designed to create accessible and customizable user interfaces. The system includes React components as well as CSS styles, allowing developers to choose the best option for their projects. HDS is in sync with the Helsinki brand and undergoes an accessibility audit before release. The system is divided into three separate packages: npm for brand colors, typography, and base styles; npm for React components; and npm for the basis of HDS, including design tokens. It is developed using Lerna for script running, versioning, and creating releases, and Yarn workspaces to manage dependencies.

Features

  • Accessibility baked-in: All HDS components are designed with accessibility in mind and go through a third-party audit before release.
  • React & CSS: HDS components are available both as React components and CSS styles, allowing flexibility in implementation.
  • Customizable: The components are designed to be easily customizable, allowing users to express their own brand styles.
  • Design and Implementation in sync: HDS uses Sketch libraries that are perfectly in sync with the implementation, ensuring accurate design representation.

Summary

The Helsinki Design System (HDS) is a comprehensive collection of components and design elements that prioritize accessibility and customization. It offers both React components and CSS styles, allowing developers to choose the best option for their projects. HDS is designed to be in sync with the Helsinki brand and undergoes an accessibility audit before release. The system is divided into three separate packages, each serving a specific purpose. Installation and usage instructions are provided, making it easy for developers and designers to incorporate HDS into their projects. The system also encourages community contributions and provides various channels for users to provide feedback and collaborate.

react
React

React is a widely used JavaScript library for building user interfaces and single-page applications. It follows a component-based architecture and uses a virtual DOM to efficiently update and render UI components

scss
SCSS

SCSS is a preprocessor scripting language that extends the capabilities of CSS by adding features such as variables, nesting, and mixins. It allows developers to write more efficient and maintainable CSS code, and helps to streamline the development process by reducing repetition and increasing reusability.