Collaboration model

Designsystemet is more than a set of components and guidelines. It is a collaboration arena where we agree on how user experiences across the public sector should work, and where we continuously improve them together. It also provides an open space to discuss accessibility, rather than having these discussions take place in isolation within individual organisations.

Organisation and levels of collaboration
Designsystemet is established as a product within the Norwegian Digitalisation Agency under the product group Portals and user experience.

Designsystemet collaborates across several levels:

1. Product council

Designsystemet has an associated product council with representatives from 13 organisations at a strategic level. The council helps set the overall direction for Designsystemet.

2. Cross-agency development team

The development team consists of designers and developers from Digdir, Brønnøysundregistrene, Mattilsynet, Utdanningsdirektoratet, and KS Digital. We hold planning meetings, daily stand-ups, retrospectives, and necessary working sessions around specific challenges. Designers and developers work closely together.

We operate with an open GitHub repository, backlog, roadmap, and discussion threads, and aim to be as transparent and open as possible.

We want to strengthen this collaboration further. It may be relevant for your organisation to contribute a resource to the core team. We would love to hear from you. Get in touch by email.

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3. Cross-agency pattern collaboration

In addition to the development team, we run a cross-agency collaboration focused on establishing shared patterns across public services. This work is important for creating more coherent and consistent user experiences, and is also one of the measures in the Action plan for increased inclusion in a digital society (measure 26), which calls for more consistent interaction patterns across services.

Design system teams from Digdir, Nav, Skatteetaten, Brønnøysundregistrene, Oslo Municipality, the Police, and Entur are among those participating. We gather insights from our respective organisations, review and compare approaches, identify differences, and agree on shared solutions through regular working sessions. The work results in articles and recommendations published on the Patterns pages.

Would you like to take part in the pattern collaboration? Get in touch by email.

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4. Community

Designsystemet aims to foster an active and inclusive community where anyone who wants to can contribute, share experiences, and learn from one another. The goal is to create an environment where designers and developers can discuss challenges, share solutions, and help improve Designsystemet. See how you can join the community here.

Designsystemet is also registered as a digital public good in the DPG registry. This means that Designsystemet has been assessed by the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), is relevant to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and meets the requirements for openness and reusability. As a result, Designsystemet can be reused and further developed by anyone.

Do you have feedback or thoughts to share? Want to be more closely involved in the collaboration? Send us an email at designsystem@digdir.no. All input is welcome.