Today, The Washington Post announces it has launched an open-source design system, making the fundamental code that powers The Post and its features available publicly for the first time.
The Washington Post Design System (WPDS) is a growing library of design tokens and interactive components purpose-built for The Post’s site. WPDS enables designers and developers at The Post to ship reader-facing digital products that are modular, elegant, and accessible while maintaining visual consistency at scale.
The design system not only accelerates the pace of collaboration between newsroom and engineering partners but also keeps the platform nimble, current and competitive. The design system enables The Post to pivot products as fast as the ever-changing news cycle.
“Just as we believe in transparency with our journalism, we're thrilled to bring that same transparency to our engineering, product and design practices so others can benefit from our learnings and learn from our patterns for rapid development,” said Arturo Silva, engineering lead.
Design Lead Brian Alfaro added, “The Washington Post design system has revolutionized how we work at The Post. The introduction of our system has brought us closer together as a team in a time where remote and distance has become the norm. We hope by sharing our design system others can learn and feel empowered.”
The Design System library launches with nine components with plans to expand to 70 in the coming months. Additional documentation will be added on an ongoing basis, with weekly release notes and deeper dives into how The Post engineering team processes and refines aspects of the site.
Interested in helping build world-class software that reaches millions across the globe? The Post’s engineering team is hiring engineers of all levels, apply today!
