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Contribute to the design system

Last updated on May 23, 2024

The B.C. Design System is open-source. There are several ways you can contribute.

On this page:

Give feedback or report a bug

The B.C. Design System is in active development. If you encounter an issue, or want to give us feedback, there are several ways to reach the team:

Propose a new component or enhancement

If you have an idea for a new component or a change to an existing component, start by reviewing our public roadmap. If your idea is already listed in our backlog, you can email designsystem@gov.bc.ca to tell us about your specific use case and let us know that it's important to you. Your input helps us prioritise what to work on.

If you don't see your idea in the backlog, you have a couple of options:

Contribute code or design

Because we are currently in the early stages of active development, we are not currently able to accept contributions. We are happy to discuss potential future contributions, or to support teams who want to fork or extend design system assets for their own use. Email designsystem@gov.bc.ca or open an issue on GitHub.

The B.C. Design System is an open source project, and we will welcome contributions from developers and designers working on B.C. government services. 

Basic contribution criteria

All components included in the design system must:

  • Not duplicate functionality of other components
  • Provide clear benefit to the user, in terms of improving usability or accessibility
  • Meet all accessibility requirements for WCAG Level AA at a minimum
  • Include both usable code in React and a Figma component
  • Make use of design tokens and/or other design system components to ensure consistency
  • Be fully documented

Test new components or concepts

The B.C. Design System is currently in an experimental phase. Testing may not be suited to teams working on sensitive or high-risk projects, or with tight timelines.

We're often looking for design and development teams to collaborate with us in implementing elements of the design system, or testing out new components and approaches. Observing how developers and designers work with the design system helps us validate what we're building, and decide what to work on next.

We're particularly interested in hearing from teams who are working on:

  • Redesigns or replacements of legacy services
  • Public-facing transactional services
  • Complex web or mobile applications

If your team is interested in collaborating with us, please email designsystem@gov.bc.ca and tell us a little about what you're working on.