systems

Endangered species and fragile ecosystems in the South China Sea: The Philippines v. China arbitration / Alfredo C. Robles, Jr

Online Resource




systems

Rehabilitating damaged ecosystems / edited by John Cairns, Jr

Online Resource




systems

Ecological modeling: an introduction to the art and science of modeling ecological systems / edited by Hsiao-Hsuan Wang, William E. Grant

Dewey Library - QH541.15.M3 E53 2019




systems

Rebuilding the Earth: regenerating our planet's life support systems for a sustainable future / Mark Everard

Online Resource




systems

Modelling nature: an introduction to mathematical modelling of natural systems / Edward Gillman, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Michael Gillman, School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln

Dewey Library - QH51.G55 2019




systems

Stewarding the sound: the challenge of managing sensitive coastal ecosystems / editors, Leah Bendell, professor, Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC, Canada, [and three others]

Rotch Library - QH106.2.B8 S745 2019




systems

Tropical ecosystems in Australia: responses to a changing world / Dilwyn J. Griffiths

Online Resource




systems

Sustainable Food Chains and Ecosystems: Cooperative Approaches for a Changing World / edited by Konstantinos Mattas, Henk Kievit, Gert van Dijk, George Baourakis, Constantin Zopounidis

Online Resource




systems

Fire in California's ecosystems / edited by Jan W. van Wagtendonk, Neil G. Sugihara, Scott L. Stephens, Andrea E. Thode, Kevin E. Shaffer, and JoAnn Fites-Kaufman

Dewey Library - QH105.C2 F57 2018




systems

A practical guide to active colloids: choosing synthetic model systems for soft matter physics research

Soft Matter, 2020, 16,3846-3868
DOI: 10.1039/D0SM00222D, Review Article
Wei Wang, Xianglong Lv, Jeffrey L. Moran, Shifang Duan, Chao Zhou
This review article provides practical, experimentally relevant details on six common types of active colloids useful for soft matter research.
The content of this RSS Feed (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry





systems

Four Ways Design Systems Can Promote Accessibility – and What They Can’t Do

Amy Hupe prepares a four bird roast of tasty treats so we can learn how the needs of many different types of users can be served through careful implementation of components within a design system.


Design systems help us to make our products consistent, and to make sure we’re creating them in the most efficient way possible. They also help us to ensure our products are designed and built to a high quality; that they’re not only consistent in appearance, and efficiently-built, but that they are good. And good design means accessible design.

1 in 5 people in the UK have a long term illness, impairment or disability – and many more have a temporary disability. Designing accessible services is incredibly important from an ethical, reputational and commercial standpoint. For EU government websites and apps, accessibility is also a legal requirement.

With that in mind, I’ll explain the four main ways I think we can use design systems to promote accessible design within an organisation, and what design systems can’t do.

1. Bake it in

Design systems typically provide guidance and examples to aid the design process, showing what best practice looks like. Many design systems also encompass code that teams can use to take these elements into production. This gives us an opportunity to build good design into the foundations of our products, not just in terms of how they look, but also how they work. For everyone.

Let me give an example.

The GOV.UK Design System contains a component called the Summary list. It’s used in a few different contexts on GOV.UK, to summarise information. It’s often used at the end of a long or complex form, to let users check their answers before they send them, like this:

Users can review the information and, if they’ve entered something incorrectly, they can go back and edit their answer by clicking the “Change” link on the right-hand side. This works well if you can see the change link, because you can see which information it corresponds to.

In the top row, for example, I can see that the link is giving me the option to change the name I’ve entered because I can see the name label, and the name I put in is next to it.

However, if you’re using a screen reader, this link – and all the others – will just say “change”, and it becomes harder to tell what you’re selecting. So to help with this, the GOV.UK Design System team added some visually-hidden text to the code in the example, to make the link more descriptive.

Sighted users won’t see this text, but when a screen reader reads out the link, it’ll say “change name”. This makes the component more accessible, and helps it to satisfy a Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) success criterion for links which says we must “provide link text that identifies the purpose of the link without needing additional context”.

By building our components with inclusion in mind, we can make it easier to make products accessible, before anyone’s even had to think about it. And that’s a great starting point. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to think about it – we definitely do. And a design system can help with that too.

2. Explain it

Having worked as the GOV.UK Design System’s content designer for the best part of 3 years, I’m somewhat biased about this, but I think that the most valuable aspect of a design system is its documentation.

(Here’s a shameless plug for my patterns Day talk on design system documentation earlier this year, if you want to know more about that.)

When it comes to accessibility, written documentation lets us guide good practice in a way that code and examples alone can’t.

By carefully documenting implementation rules for each component, we have an opportunity to distribute accessible design principles throughout a design system. This means design system users encounter them not just once, but repeatedly and frequently, in various contexts, which helps to build awareness over time.

For instance, WCAG 2.1 warns against using colour as “the only visual means of conveying information, calling an action, prompting a response or distinguishing a visual element”. This is a general principle to follow, but design system documentation lets us explain how this relates to specific components.

Take the GOV.UK Design System’s warning buttons. These are used for actions with serious, often destructive consequences that can’t easily be undone – like permanently deleting an account.

The example doesn’t tell you this, but the guidance explains that you shouldn’t rely on the red colour of warning buttons to communicate that the button performs a serious action, since not all users will be able to see the colour or understand what it signifies.

Instead, it says, “make sure the context and button text makes clear what will happen if the user selects it”. In this way, the colour is used as an enhancement for people who can interpret it, but it’s not necessary in order to understand it.

Making the code in our examples and component packages as accessible as possible by default is really important, but written documentation like this lets us be much more explicit about how to design accessible services.

3. Lead by example

In our design systems’ documentation, we’re telling people what good design looks like, so it’s really important that we practice what we preach.

Design systems are usually for members of staff, rather than members of the public. But if we want to build an inclusive workplace, we need to hold them to the same standards and ensure they’re accessible to everyone who might need to use them – today and in the future.

One of the ways we did this in my team, was by making sure the GOV.UK Design System supports users who need to customise the colours they use to browse the web. There are a range of different user needs for changing colours on the web. People who are sensitive to light, for instance, might find a white background too bright. And some users with dyslexia find certain colours easier to read than others.

My colleague, Nick Colley, wrote about the work we did to ensure GOV.UK Design System’s components will work when users change colours on GOV.UK. To ensure we weren’t introducing barriers to our colleagues, we also made it possible to customise colours in the GOV.UK Design System website itself.

Building this flexibility into our design system helps to support our colleagues who need it, but it also shows others that we’re committed to inclusion and removing barriers.

4. Teach it

The examples I’ve drawn on here have mostly focused on design system documentation and tooling, but design systems are much bigger than that. In the fortuitously-timed “There is No Design System”, Jina reminds us that tooling is just one of the ways we systematise design:

…it’s a lot of people-focused work: Reviewing. Advising. Organizing. Coordinating. Triaging. Educating. Supporting.”

To make a design system successful, we can’t just build a set of components and hope they work. We have to actively help people find it, use it and contribute to it. That means we have to go out and talk about it. We have to support people in learning to use it and help new teams adopt it. These engagement activities and collaborative processes that sit around it can help to promote awareness of the why, not just the what.

At GDS, we ran workshops on accessibility in the design system, getting people to browse various web pages using visual impairment simulation glasses to understand how visually impaired users might experience our content. By working closely with our systems’ users and contributors like this, we have an opportunity to bring them along on the journey of making something accessible.

We can help them to test out their code and content and understand how they’ll work on different platforms, and how they might need to be adjusted to make sure they’re accessible. We can teach them what accessibility means in practice.

These kinds of activities are invaluable in helping to promote accessible design thinking. And these kinds of lessons – when taught well – are disseminated as colleagues share knowledge with their teams, departments and the wider industry.

What design systems can’t do

Our industry’s excitement about design systems shows no signs of abating, and I’m excited about the opportunities it affords us to make accessible design the default, not an edge case. But I want to finish on a word about their limitations.

While a design system can help to promote awareness of the need to be accessible, and how to design products and services that are, a design system can’t make an organisation fundamentally care about accessibility.

Even with the help of a thoughtfully created design system, it’s still possible to make really inaccessible products if you’re not actively working to remove barriers. I feel lucky to have worked somewhere that prioritises accessibility. Thanks to the work of some really brilliant people, it’s just part of the fabric at GDS. (For more on that work and those brilliant people, I can’t think of a better place to start than my colleague Ollie Byford’s talk on inclusive forms.)

I’m far from being an accessibility expert, but I can write about this because I’ve worked in an organisation where it’s always a central consideration. This shouldn’t be something to feel lucky about. It should be the default, but sadly we’re not there yet. Not even close.

Earlier this year, Domino’s pizza was successfully sued by a blind customer after he was unable to order food on their website or mobile app, despite using screen-reading software. And in a recent study carried out by disability equality charity, Scope, 50% of respondents said that they had given up on buying a product because the website, app or in-store machine had accessibility issues.

Legally, reputationally and most importantly, morally, we all have a duty to do better. To make sure our products and services are accessible to everyone. We can use design systems to help us on that journey, but they’re just one part of our toolkit.

In the end, it’s about committing to the cause – doing the work to make things accessible. Because accessible design is good design.


About the author

Amy is a content specialist and design systems advocate who’s spent the last 3 years working as a Senior Content Designer at the Government Digital Service.

In that time, she’s led the content strategy for the GOV.UK Design System, including a straightforward and inclusive approach to documentation.

In January, Amy will continue her work in this space, in her new role as Product Manager for Babylon Health’s design system, DNA.

More articles by Amy




systems

Managing interdependencies in federal systems: intergovernmental councils and the making of public policy / Johanna Schnabel

Online Resource




systems

Identities, trust, and cohesion in federal systems: public perspectives / edited by Jack Jedwab and John Kincaid

Dewey Library - JC355.I34 2018




systems

Explicit stability conditions for continuous systems [electronic resource] : a functional analytic approach / by Michael I. Gil’

Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2005




systems

Complex Dynamics [electronic resource] : Advanced System Dynamics in Complex Variables. Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering, Volume 34

Springer 2007




systems

Dynamical systems with applications using mathematica [electronic resource] / Stephen Lynch

Boston, Mass. : Birkhäuser ; [2007]




systems

Dynamical systems [electronic resource] : examples of complex behaviour / Juergen Jost

Berlin ; New York : Springer, [2005]




systems

Digital control systems [electronic resource] : design, identification and implementation / Ioan D. Landau and Gianluca Zito

Berlin ; New York : Springer, [2006]




systems

Control of uncertain systems--modelling, approximation, and design [electronic resource] : a workshop on the occasion of Keith Glover's 60th birthday / B.A. Francis, M.C. Smith, J.C. Willems (eds.)

Berlin ; New York : Springer, [2006]




systems

Control of nonlinear and hybrid process systems [electronic resource] : designs for uncertainty, constraints and time-delays / Panagiotis D. Christofides, Nael H. El-Farra

Berlin ; New York : Springer, [2005]




systems

Control and observer design for nonlinear finite and infinite dimensional systems [electronic resource] / Thomas Meurer, Knut Graichen, Ernst Dieter Gilles (eds.)

Berlin ; New York : Springer, [2005]




systems

Advances in electric power and energy systems : load and price forecasting / edited by Mohamed E. El-Hawary




systems

Adaptive food webs : stability and transitions of real and model ecosystems / edited by John C. Moore (Colorado State University, CO, USA), Peter C. de Ruiter (Wageningen Universiteit, The Netherlands), Kevin S. McCann (University of Guelph, ON, Canada),




systems

Wind and solar based energy systems for communities / edited by Rupp Carriveau and David S-K. Ting




systems

Microgrids and other local area power and energy systems / Alexis Kwasinski (University of Pittsburgh), Wayne Weaver (Michigan Technological University), Robert S. Balog (Texas A&M University)

Kwasinski, Alexis, 1970- author




systems

Satellite remote sensing for conservation action : case studies from aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems / edited by Allison K. Leidner (ASRC Federal/National Aeronautics and Space Administration), Graeme M. Buchanan (RSPB, Edinburgh, UK)




systems

Promoting biodiversity in food systems / edited by Irana W. Hawkins, PhD, MPH, RDN




systems

Microbes for restoration of degraded ecosystems / edited by D.J. Bagyaraj, Jamaluddin




systems

Advances in energy systems : the large-scale renewable energy integration challenge / edited by Peter D. Lund (Aalto University, Finland) [and three others]




systems

Smart power systems and renewable energy system integration / Dilan Jayaweera, editor




systems

Use, operation and maintenance of renewable energy systems : experiences and future approaches / Miguel A. Sanz-Bobi, editor




systems

JSJ 378: Stencil and Design Systems with Josh Thomas and Mike Hartington

Sponsors

Panel

  • Aimee Knight

  • Chris Ferdinandi

  • Joe Eames

  • AJ O’Neal

  • Charles Max Wood

With Special Guests: Josh Thomas and Mike Hartington

Episode Summary

Today’s guests Josh Thomas and Mike Hartington are developers for Ionic, with Josh working on the open source part of the framework on Ionic. They talk about their new compiler for web components called Stencil. Stencil was originally created out of work they did for Ionic 4 (now available for Vue, React, and Angular) and making Ionic 4 able to compliment all the different frameworks. They talk about their decision to build their own compiler and why they decided to open source it. Now, a lot of companies are looking into using Stencil to build design systems

The panel discusses when design systems should be implemented. Since Ionic is a component library that people can pull from and use themselves, Jeff and Mike talk about how they are using Stencil since they’re not creating a design system.

The panel discusses some of the drawbacks of web components. They discuss whether or not Cordova changes the game at all. One of the big advantages of using Stencil is the code that is delivered to a browser is generated in such a way that a lot of things are handled for you, unlike in other systems.The panelists talk about their thoughts on web components and the benefits of using a component versus creating a widget the old fashioned way. One such benefit of web components is that you can change the internals of how it works without affecting the API. Josh and Mike talk about some of the abilities of Stencil and compare it to other things like Tachyons. There is a short discussion of the line between frameworks and components and the dangers of pre optimization. If you would like to learn more about Stencil, go to stenciljs.com and follow Josh and Mike @Jtoms1 and @mhartington.

Click here to cast your vote NOW for JavaScript Jabber - Best Dev Podcast Award

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Picks

Aimee Knight:

AJ O’Neal:

Chris Ferdinandi:

Charles Max Wood:

Joe Eames:

Josh Thomas:

Mike Hartington:




systems

JSJ 397: Design Systems with Kaelig Deloumeau-Prigent

Kaelig Deloumeau-Prigent is a self taught web developer from west France. He has worked for BBC, The Guardian, and The Financial Times in the UK. He has also worked in the US for SalesForce and currently works for Shopify on their Polaris design system. Shopify has multiple design systems, and Polaris is open source. Today the panel is talking about design systems and developer tooling around design systems. 

To begin, Kaelig explains what a design system is. A design system is all of the cultural practices around design and shipping a product. It includes things like the words, colors, spacing grid system, and typography, plus guidance on how to achieve that in code. The panelists discuss what has made design systems so popular. Design systems have been around for a while, but became popular due to the shift to components, which has been accelerated by the popularity of React. The term design system is also misused by a lot of people, for it is much more than having a Sketch file. 

Next, they talk about whether design systems fall under the jurisdiction of a frontend developer or web designers. Kaelig has found that a successful design system involves a little bit of everyone and shouldn’t be isolated to one team. They talk about what the developer workflow looks like in a design system. It begins with thinking of a few common rules, a language, and putting it into code. As you scale, design systems can become quite large and it’s impossible for one person to know everything. You either give into the chaos, or you start a devops practice where people start to think about how we build, release, and the path from designer’s brain to production.

The panelists then talk about how to introduce a design system into a company where there are cultural conflicts. Kaelig shares his experience working with SalesForce and introducing a design system there. They discuss what aspects of a design system that would make people want to use it over what the team is currently doing. Usually teams are thankful for the design system. It’s important to build a system that’s complete, flexible, and extensible so that you can adapt it to your team. A good design system incorporates ‘subatomic’ parts like the grid system, color palette, and typography, referred to as design tokens. Design systems enable people to take just the bits of the design system that are interesting to them and build the components that are missing more easily. 

The conversation turns to the installation and upgrade process of a design system. Upgrading is left up to the customer to do on their own time in most cases, unless it’s one of the big customers. They talk about the role of components in upgrading a design system. Kaelig talks about the possibility of Shopify transitioning to web components. Kaelig shares some of his favorite tools for making a design system and how to get started making one. A lot of design teams start by taking a ton of screen shots and looking at all the inconsistencies.Giving them that visibility is a good thing because it helps get everyone get on the same page. The panelists talk about the role of upper management in developing components and how to prioritize feature development. Kaelig talks about what drives the decision to take a feature out. The two main reasons a feature would be removed is because the company wants to change the way things are done and there’s a different need that has arisen. The show concludes by discussing the possibility of a design system getting bloated over time. Kaelig says that Design systems takes some of the burden off your team, help prevent things from getting bloated, allow you to ship less code.

 

Panelists

  • Chris Ferdinandi

  • Aimee Knight

  • Steve Emmerich

With special guest: Kaelig Deloumeau-Prigent

Sponsors

Links

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Picks

Steve Emmerich:

Aimee Knight:

Chris Ferdinandi:

Kaelig Deloumeau-Prigent:




systems

Vertical flow constructed wetlands : eco-engineering systems for wastewater and sludge treatment / Alexandros Stefanakis, Christos S. Akratos, Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis

Stefanakis, Alexandros, 1982-




systems

Marine ecosystems : human impacts on biodiversity, functioning and services / edited by Tasman P. Crowe, University College Dublin, Ireland, Christopher L.J. Frid, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia




systems

Deep marine systems : processes, deposits, environments, tectonics and sedimentation / Kevin T. Pickering & Richard N. Hiscott ; with contribution from Thomas Heard

Pickering, K. T. (Kevin T.), author




systems

Pollution status, environmental protection, and renewable energy production in marine systems / Ahmed El Nemr, editor




systems

Freshwater ecosystems in protected areas : conservation and management / edited by C. Max Finlayson, Angela H. Arthington and Jamie Pittock




systems

Environmental management of marine ecosystems [electronic resource] / edited by Md. Nazrul Islam, Sven Erik Jørgensen




systems

Aquatic ecosystems in a changing climate / editors, H.C. Donat-P. Häder (Department of Biology, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany), Kunshan Gao (State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Fujian




systems

Molecular engineering of nanosystems / Edward A. Rietman

Rietman, Ed




systems

Principles of nanotechnology : molecular-based study of condensed matter in small systems / G. Ali Mansoori

Mansoori, G. A. (G. Ali)




systems

Clusters and nano-assemblies : physical and biological systems / editors, P. Jena, S.N. Khanna, B.K. Rao




systems

Designing nanoparticle systems for catalysis : London, UK, 16-18 May 2018

Designing nanoparticle systems for catalysis (2018 : London).




systems

GM food systems and their economic impact / Tatjana Brankov and Koviljko Lovre

Hayden Library - TP248.65.F66 B73 2018




systems

Prospects of Renewable Bioprocessing in Future Energy Systems / editors, Ali Asghar Rastegari, Ajar Nath Yadav and Arti Gupta

Online Resource




systems

Fundamental modeling of membrane systems: membrane and process performance / edited by Patricia Luis

Online Resource




systems

Energy optimization in process systems and fuel cells / Stanisław Sieniutycz, Jacek Jeżowski

Online Resource




systems

ASHRAE guide for sustainable refrigerated facilities and refrigeration systems.

Online Resource