This blog is going to focus on our fonts and typography: what we designed, why we designed it this way, and how this system is different from just about anything else you might have come across. We’ll cover the new font technology we’ve embraced, some new ideas in typography and techniques in cascading style sheets (CSS), and how it all makes a positive impact on web performance and accessibility.

One of the biggest challenges in creating unified systems of websites — for universities, corporate families, or government — is finding the balance between cohesive unity and unique differentiation. Providing enough similarity so that sites feel connected and “in the same family” while still allowing them to feel distinct. A good design system balances user needs and the site owners’ desire to maintain a differentiated identity. We created our design system and named it Orchard with just this balance in mind: letting the trees be unique while still belonging to the same forest!

Read about DSGa's 13th GOVTalks conference, sponsored by our web analytics partner, Siteimprove. For this, DSGa's first-ever virtual event, we introduced the Siteimprove dashboard, a tool that enables agencies to monitor, measure, and improve the performance of their websites and deliver a better experience for users.