RoadmapA high-level summary of the work the design system team plans to focus on in 2025. Some initiatives span multiple phases, meaning they will be continuously worked on across the year.For more information on the latest releases, visit the release notes
The roadmap is subject to change as we gather new information. We will communicate updates to ensure product teams can align, prepare, and strategize their work accordingly.
For more details on our priorities and day-to-day activities, see our design system backlog
Ongoing
These initiatives will be continuously worked on, refined, and expanded over the course of the year.Components in contextObjective: Improve component documentation by providing real-world examples and guidance on how components function alongside other components and in specific contexts.Benefit: Helps teams understand when and how to use components together, reducing implementation time and inconsistencies. This ensures more efficient development workflows and stronger alignment across digital products.Workspace component developmentObjective: Design and develop new components required to support the workspace pattern.Benefit: Ensures that workspace templates include the necessary foundational components for product teams to build efficiently. Standardized workspace components reduce implementation effort, improve maintainability, and accelerate workspace pattern adoption.Expanding design system documentationObjective: Enhance documentation with detailed usage guidelines, examples, and design guidelines for components and patterns.Benefit: Provides clearer direction for designers and developers, leading to more consistent, accessible, and comprehensive design system implementation. Well-structured documentation reduces onboarding time for new teams, improves design integrity, and minimizes implementation errors.Addressing findings from accessibility auditObjective: Resolve accessibility barriers identified in the Code for Canada audit by addressing issues related to DDD Design System components.Benefit: Improves accessibility and inclusivity across the design system, ensuring a better experience for users relying on assistive technologies. This initiative will help eliminate at least eight known accessibility barriers, improving WCAG 2.2 AA compliance.
Now
Work that is currently in progress.Citizen-facing form templateObjective: Provide a pre-built template and working example for citizen-facing forms, incorporating best practices for usability and accessibility.Benefit: Reduces setup time, ensures compliance with usability and accessibility standards, and improves consistency across services. This will enable teams to deploy citizen-facing forms faster while adhering to government guidelines.Front-end development skill assessmentObjective: Assess front-end skills among full-stack developers to identify gaps and training needs.Benefit: Helps determine what training materials and documentation are needed to improve front-end development outputs. The findings from this research have informed at least three targeted training initiatives to support developer growth.'Foundations' content for the design system websiteObjective: Introduce a 'Foundations' section to the design system website, providing essential guidance on design principles, accessibility, and visual standards for government digital products.Benefit: Helps teams build modern, consistent, and user-friendly digital experiences by offering clear direction on fundamental design topics. This section will standardize key design principles across the organization, reinforcing usability and accessibility best practices.
Next
Work that we have a clear definition around, discovery is underway, or we have moved to the design phase.Design system evolutionObjective: Elevate the overall quality and visual appeal of government digital products.Benefit: Delivers more consistent, high-quality services that match the digital standards citizens expect, improving user trust and engagement.Productivity-focused workspace templatesObjective: Launch the first set of ready-to-use workspace templates to streamline interface design for complex workflows. Additional components and functionality will be introduced throughout the year to enhance flexibility and meet evolving product team needs.Benefit: Speeds up development by providing well-structured, reusable templates, reducing the need for extensive customization. These templates will help product teams build scalable digital workspaces more efficiently, ensuring alignment with government standards.Front-end development training materialsObjective: Develop structured front-end development training materials for full-stack developers.Benefit: Improves the quality, consistency, and efficiency of front-end development across teams. Providing standardized training will reduce implementation errors, increase development velocity, and educate on accessibility best practices.
Later
Work that is currently in the early phases of discovery and may see substantial changes as the work becomes more defined.Citizen-Facing Form & Workspace Integration ExampleObjective: Develop a reference implementation demonstrating how the “Citizen-facing form” template can connect seamlessly with the “Workspace” template.Benefit: Helps teams implement the “Citizen-facing form” and “Workspace” combination by providing a ready-to-use example. Instead of building from scratch, teams can leverage this combination to stand up government services quickly and efficiently. This will also help ensure design and development consistency across projects.Integrating common platform servicesObjective: Streamline the adoption of “Citizen-facing form” and “Workspace” patterns by integrating frequently used platform services, such as “File service”, “PDF service”, and “Notification Service.”Benefit: Simplifies development and accelerates time to market while improving maintainability, scalability, and consistency across government services. This ensures teams can focus on building context-specific features instead of rebuilding core functionalities. Additionally, aligning with government platform services improves security and compliance with government standards.
Join design system drop in hours to get feedback on your service, propose new components or patterns, suggest changes to existing resources, ask questions, and give feedback to the design system. These sessions are for Government of Alberta product teams. Book time in drop in hours