History

The design system is as old as the Velocity Interoperability Network itself. It was assembled in the hours around the establishment of the Network so that the first departments could publish on the same day, and its history so far is short. The events below are set out in order.

1. 6 September 2026

   The Network is established

   The founding decisions create the Network and its first departments, each of which needs a website on the .gov.vin domain.

2. 6 September 2026

   A single shared package

   Rather than build each site separately, the departments agree to a shared component package, published from the Network monorepo as @vin/ui. The shell, the standard page and the four standard pages form its first release.

3. 6 September 2026

   Colour tokens and typefaces fixed

   The nineteen named colour tokens and the two typefaces are settled. Sites may set their own brand hue; everything else is common.

4. 6 September 2026

   Newsroom and forms

   The press release index, article and featured story are added so that every department can publish announcements, and the form primitives and application form follow.

5. 6 September 2026

   Content components and motion

   Lists, steps, timelines, key figures, the accordion and the data table join the package, with the image grid, image band and page hero, navigation submenus, and reveal and collapse transitions that honour reduced motion.

6. 6 September 2026

   The Network gathered in the footer

   The footer links are grouped under two headings, departments and network services, and the list of sites carried in every footer is extended to the seventy sites then established.

7. 6 September 2026

   This site opens

   design.gov.vin is published as the reference for the system, showing each component as it renders on a site of the Network and recording the tokens, patterns, standards and releases.

8. Forthcoming

   A first stable release

   To be declared when the set of components has been unchanged through a full cycle of site reviews. Pagination and a document list have been accepted for the releases that will precede it.

Each release is recorded with the components it affected in the Release Notes. For what the system provides today, see About the Design System.