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Service update

Some tools are still being tested

Some tools may be unavailable or may not work as expected while we complete final testing.

This is a new service. Help us improve it and give your feedback.

Criminal Justice Hub Design System

How we work

Our principles for designing, testing and improving CJH services.

We work in small, evidence-led changes so the hub can improve without making services harder to use or maintain.

Our working principles

  • Work from user needs, not organisational structure.
  • Prefer reusable patterns over one-off page designs.
  • Make content easy to maintain in WordPress.
  • Keep structured data in plugins where possible so it survives theme changes.
  • Test accessibility before publishing major changes.
  • Use feedback and analytics to decide what to improve next.

Design process

  1. Identify the user need and evidence.
  2. Choose the right content type or tool pattern.
  3. Create or update the content using plain English.
  4. Review accessibility, source reliability and privacy impact.
  5. Publish, monitor feedback and iterate.

Content ownership

Every page, tool and collection should have an owner, review cycle and clear source of truth. If information changes regularly, the design should make that visible and easy to update.

Open decisions

Important decisions about patterns, components and publishing standards should be recorded in the design system so future teams can understand the reasoning.