Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Patterns

Patterns are solutions and researched best practices that solve recurring user interface design problems:
  • How do you build complex, multi-part web forms?
  • How do you provide navigational context?
  • How do you handle progressive disclosure?

How are they different from components?

A pattern is more than the sum of its parts. Patterns are solutions, whereas a component can be considered a UI chunk. In Formation, patterns demonstrate how design, content strategy, reusable components, and accessibility can be put together to solve common problems that all Veterans may experience on VA.gov.

Components can be considered concrete, a finite list: buttons, accordions, tables, etc. Patterns might be unique to a site or an application and may evolve with changes in technology or after competitive analysis.

Edit this page in GitHub (Permissions required)
Last updated: Oct 14, 2019