What is Sky UI?

Sky UI is a central source of standards and assets that help Sky Digital design consistent brand experiences, quickly and at scale, across multiple platforms.

Repetitive work is reduced, alleviating strain on design and development resources, enabling teams to focus on larger, more complex problems in a creative and innovative way.

It represents the best version of Sky.

What makes it into the Sky UI design system?

Sky UI is an ever-evolving design system that aims to provide a consistent user experience across different products and platforms. As such, we welcome feedback and contribution from the wider community to make the system even better.

When proposing an addition to Sky UI, it's important to consider whether the component, pattern, or style meets the following criteria:

Adaptable: suitable for use in multiple contexts, products, and/or journeys
Stable: it has been tried and tested to avoid volatility that could impact consumers
Not time-sensitive: is not tied to project deliverables to allow adequate time for feedback and testing

This ensures that the proposed addition aligns with the goals and principles of the design system, and is not just a one-off solution to a specific problem. By prioritising versatility and scalability, we can build a more robust and flexible design system that can adapt to the changing needs of different products and platforms.

How can I make a request to Sky UI?

If you feel like you have a suitable candidate for a new component or pattern, want to suggest a change, make a request, or have any other questions please raise them in #sky-ui-design-system Slack channel *. If you’re not sure whether you have a suitable candidate, have a look through our flow below to see what might be required before you make a request.

Github contribution

For any changes specific to the Sky UI React library contributions such as performance improvements, bug fixes or any other enhancements please check our GitHub contribution guide *.

If you have any questions around contribution or want to discuss a change please feel free to drop a message in #dt-ui-development Slack channel *.

* These links are only available to Sky employees.

Design System FAQs

Q. Will using a design system such as Sky UI restrict creativity?

A. No! Time saved on recreating commonly used elements can be put towards more interesting solutions and innovation. Along with common components and patterns, Sky UI also provides a suite of system utilities and hooks to rapidly create completely bespoke UI elements, interactions and animations in a fraction of the time.

Q. Do we need to use Sky UI for everything?

A. Absolutely not, while Sky UI provides lots of commonly used UI elements there will often be times where bespoke elements need to be created. When a bespoke solution is needed, Sky UI still provides a lot of low level utilities and system modifiers allowing consumers to leverage the same tooling used to create the core system components.

Q. It’s time consuming getting components into Sky UI?

A. Well, sometimes. Components which go into Sky UI typically undergo more scrutiny than in an app. We need to make sure we have confidence in a solution, adequate testing and documentation prior to including it in the system. This process can sometimes be pretty swift, especially if we’re migrating an existing component that has already been tried and tested. Sometimes this process takes more time and can undergo multiple revisions, where possible we try to build out new additions within apps so they can be tested in context, this scrutiny and careful approach allows us to ensure the best quality solutions and ensures that the system remains highly curated and manageable.