Get started
The examples in the GOV.UK Design System come with code to make it easy for you to use them in your project.
There are guides to getting started:
Getting started with the GOV.UK brand refresh
In June 2025, we made updates to the Design System to support a wider refresh of the GOV.UK brand. These include new features in GOV.UK Frontend to help service teams implement GOV.UK’s refreshed brand.
When you set up a new service using GOV.UK Frontend, you’ll need to implement the refreshed brand as part of getting started.
One simple way to do this is to add a govukRebrand global to your Nunjucks environment, with a value of true.
This global value makes the affected components use new styles for the brand refresh and display updated assets (such as the refreshed logo in the GOV.UK header component and the crown in the GOV.UK footer component).
We also offer several other ways to do this depending on the code in your service.
To see more details and how to update, see the release notes for GOV.UK Frontend v5.10.0
Using styles, components and patterns
When we publish new styles, components or patterns we include details of how and when it’s been tested in user research. This should help you decide whether it’s something you can use or adapt for your service.
You can ask questions or share your research by joining the discussion on GitHub. There are links at the end of each style, component and pattern page - under the ‘Help improve this page’ heading.
GitHub discussions about styles, components and patterns
Bear in mind that ideas discussed on GitHub may not have been tested. You can use them as a starting point, but it’s important to carry out user research to check that they work for your service. Then when you’ve carried out your user research, add your findings to the relevant discussion.
GitHub discussions are open to everyone, including members of the public. The views expressed there are the views of individuals and not the views of the GOV.UK Design System team.