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Open Design Library

Free and open resources worth knowing: official, well maintained and trustworthy. A short list on purpose.

Licences are what each project’s own repository reported on the date shown. Where a licence was not checked, the entry says so. “Free to read” does not mean open source.

Verified 7 Oct 2026

Government design systems

  • Singapore Government Design System

    Open source

    Singapore's design system: foundations, components, templates and blocks.

    Use it for.
    Singapore government services, and as a worked example of a token architecture.
    Why it is useful.
    Official, actively maintained, and the system the Baseline Design Practices point to.
    Licence.
    MIT (web components repository)

    Official site(opens in a new tab)Repository(opens in a new tab)

  • GOV.UK Design System

    Open source

    Components and patterns for UK government services, each with the research behind it.

    Use it for.
    Form patterns, error handling and plain-language guidance.
    Why it is useful.
    Unusually open about when not to use a component.
    Licence.
    MIT (GOV.UK Frontend)

    Official site(opens in a new tab)Repository(opens in a new tab)

  • U.S. Web Design System

    Open source

    The design system for United States federal websites.

    Use it for.
    A third government system to compare against.
    Why it is useful.
    Mature, well documented and built for accessibility.
    Licence.
    Licence file present, not a standard identifier. Read it in the repository.

    Official site(opens in a new tab)Repository(opens in a new tab)

UX research resources

  • GOV.UK Service Manual: User research

    Free to read

    Practical guides to planning, running and analysing research.

    Use it for.
    Consent, moderated testing and analysis, step by step.
    Why it is useful.
    Written by practitioners, free, and specific. Some pages are several years old.
    Licence.
    Not checked. See the site's own terms.

    Official site(opens in a new tab)

  • Nielsen Norman Group articles

    Free to read

    Evidence-based articles on usability and research methods.

    Use it for.
    Method choice, interviews, testing and synthesis.
    Why it is useful.
    Long-running and widely cited. Articles are free; training is paid.
    Licence.
    Not checked. See the site's own terms.

    Official site(opens in a new tab)

Accessibility

  • WCAG 2.2

    Free to read

    The W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

    Use it for.
    The testable criteria most accessibility requirements point to.
    Why it is useful.
    It is the standard itself, not a summary of it.
    Licence.
    Licence file present, not a standard identifier. Read it in the repository.

    Official site(opens in a new tab)Repository(opens in a new tab)

  • ARIA Authoring Practices Guide

    Free to read

    W3C patterns for accessible widgets, with keyboard behaviour and examples.

    Use it for.
    Specifying how a custom component should behave by keyboard.
    Why it is useful.
    The reference for interaction patterns such as tabs, menus and dialogs.
    Licence.
    Licence file present, not a standard identifier. Read it in the repository.

    Official site(opens in a new tab)Repository(opens in a new tab)

  • axe-core

    Open source

    An accessibility testing engine for websites.

    Use it for.
    Automated checks in the browser and in a build pipeline.
    Why it is useful.
    Widely used, and the engine behind many other tools.
    Licence.
    MPL-2.0

    Official site(opens in a new tab)

  • Pa11y

    Open source

    Command-line accessibility testing.

    Use it for.
    Running checks across many pages automatically.
    Why it is useful.
    Simple to add to a project.
    Licence.
    LGPL-3.0

    Official site(opens in a new tab)Repository(opens in a new tab)

Design systems

Icons

Fonts