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  1. February 25, 2021

    Rivet 1.8.0 release

    Rivet 1.8.0 is now available. This release adds border removal utility classes and fixes bugs related to the button, dropdown, and collapsible components.

  2. February 15, 2021

    Rivet announcements: Beta timeline, GitHub Discussions, and 1.8.0 release

    Updates about Rivet's development in the spring and beyond.

  3. January 20, 2021

    Rivet featured on Accessible Code Libraries and Design Patterns list

    Rivet was highlighted alongside the U.S. government, GOV.UK, and Salesforce design systems.

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Contributing

If you have created a component you think would be useful to others or would like to make a suggestion, let us know.

In this article

    • Github issues
    • Guidelines
    • Review process
      • Collaboration
      • Content changes
      • Proposed Status
      • Review criteria

Github issues

We’ll be using Github issues to keep track of new component submissions, bugs, design feedback, and any other suggestions related to the design system. To help us understand the kind of contribution you want to make, we ask that you first submit a Github.

Create an issue

Guidelines

Here are a few guidelines to follow when creating a new issue:

  1. Go to the Rivet source repository on GitHub.
  2. Click the “New Issue” button.
  3. Fill out the provided issue template to the best of your ability. If you are submitting a design concept for a new or existing component please attach a screenshot, a link to an Axure mockup, or feel free to link to example HTML/CSS/JavaScript (a link to a pen on Codepen would be great!). We’re looking for anything that will demonstrate your concept here. Don’t worry if it’s unstyled or lacks visual design.
  4. After you have filled out the issue template click the Submit new issue button to create your new issue.
  5. Once the issue is created it will move on to the review process.

Review process

Creating an issue is just a way to start a conversation that is visible to the whole team. Anyone should feel free to create a new issue, but before a new submission moves on to a formal review process we’ll ask that it include Each one include:

  • a fairly short descriptive title
  • What will be gained by adding this design and will be lost if we don’t?
  • A description of the design problem this component solves
  • at least one of the following: screenshots/images of your rendered design, wireframes, design mockups, links to Codepen, jsFiddle, etc., Axure mockups, iPhone photo of a napkin sketch.
    • NOTE: If applicable, this should include a documented interaction flow, eg. states (hover, focus, click, drag…), error and success messages, etc.
  • any other document, links, research you would like to include
  • If you have a specific use-case for a proposed solution, please provide some context (screenshots, links)

Collaboration

If you are a developer and want help with your submission from a designer make sure to mention that when creating your issue and someone from the review team will help pair you up with a designer. Same goes for designers that want help from a developer.

Content changes

If you are proposing a content change, please include a draft of the text content you’re focusing on.

Proposed Status

After the Github issue is created and the submission has enough information and supporting materials (i.e., the issue template is completely filled out), someone from the team will mark the issue as Proposed. Otherwise, someone from the team will ask the submitter for further information/documentation and mark the issue as needs more info.

Review criteria

Once they have enough info, the team will do a review of the proposed design based on the following criteria:

  • Usability — Is the interaction flow clearly documented? Is the pattern responsive? Does it follow commonly accepted best practices?
  • Flexibility — Does the component meet the greatest number of use cases possible? In other words, is this a common pattern that occurs in lots of applications, or it solving a particular problem in one application?
  • Accessibility — Is the pattern accessible to all intended audiences?
  • Visual design — Is the contribution consistent with our visual style?
  • Content — Does the pattern have plain language, correct spelling, and grammar? Does the author clearly describe actions?

If the team decides to not move forward with the design submission, the issue will be marked as archived with an explanation of why.

Next: Why we built Rivet
Levi McGranahan
June 1, 2017

About Rivet

Rivet is a university-wide initiative, overseen by the Digital Campus Studio.

Have a question about Rivet?

We're happy to help! If you've found a bug, typo, or have a request, the best way to get in touch is to create an issue on Github.

For all other questions please feel free to email us at rivet@iu.edu

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