---
title: Principles
label: Principles
---

<div class="au-body">
    <p class="au-introduction">The Health Design System allows designers and developers to provide a unified experience for users of Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care products.</p>
</div>

## About the Health Design System
The HDS uses the [GOLD Design System](https://gold.designsystemau.org/) as its foundation and provides a set of open-source building blocks that can be used to build digital products and services more easily.

## Guiding principles
The following principles underpin the Health Design System's development.
### Consistent
Provide a unified user experience across products, services, platforms and organisations.
### Accessible
Build accessible products that benefit **all users**.
### Streamlined
Permit teams and individuals to deliver products quickly and easily.
### Family and community
Support a community effort to deliver a family of products, whether across Health and Aged Care or across government.