Build on open standards and common components and patterns from inside and outside government.
If you develop your own patterns or components, share them publicly so others can use them.
Why it’s important
Using common components and patterns means you do not have to solve problems that have already been solved. By using a component or pattern that’s already been extensively tested, you can provide users with a good experience in a cost effective way. If you develop your own components or patterns, share them so that others can benefit from your work.
Open standards help services to work consistently – so you’ll spend less time trying to make systems “talk” to each other. And they help you to avoid getting locked into a particular supplier or technology – so when things change, you can change your approach.
What it means
Service teams should:
- use open standards, and propose a new open standard if there isn’t one that already meets their needs
- use common government services if possible
- be flexible in their use of technology
- use common components and patterns, and share details of new ones they create or adapt
When services create data that could be useful to others, they should publish them in an open, machine readable format. The data should also be published under an Open Government Licence.
Services should not publish personal or other sensitive data. They should also not publish anything that could breach anyone’s intellectual property rights.
For GOV.WALES services, this means:
- being consistent with the design of GOV.WALES
- following the GOV.WALES style guide for all text, online and offline