What is a Pattern Library?
A pattern library is an organized group of user interface design (UI) elements that can be reused across a website or application. It can document and define how the UI elements behave, what they look like and how they are coded.
A pattern library includes patterns that help with:
- Navigation - Help users find what they need, when they need it.
- Getting Input - Getting the user to input data is a task that can be difficult and error prone.
- Handling Data - Data can be searched, formatted, organized, and browsed in a variety of ways.
Why is a Pattern Library Necessary?
A pattern library has the following benefits:
- A Pattern library ensures a consistent user interface, in accordance with the brand guidelines.
- A pattern library affords reusability, developers and designers don't have to constantly build design elements from scratch.
- A pattern library makes maintenance easier. Developers and designers will only have to go to the pattern library for the most updated pattern.
- A pattern library can be used to solve common design problems.
How to use the Pattern Library
This pattern library follows the principles of responsive design and adheres to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). The pattern library will be maintained as a living document, it will contain the most commonly used UI elements. If you do not see the elements that you need, please reach out to the User Experience team. We recommend that you use the pattern library in a modular way. Do not take the whole library and use it for your application. Take just the base layout and modify the main.css file to fit your application. In other words, only take what you need, so that you application will be fast, light-weight, efficient and extremely responsive.