Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions about Unifi

What is a “Design System” and why does Nelnet need one?

Design systems provide a cohesive visual language, which is essential to building better products faster. Through the Unifi Design System, Nelnet is establishing standards among products and creating a unified foundation for our growing and distributed teams. The Unifi Design System aims to reduce technical debt by providing tested and accessible components so that you can focus on building great user experiences.

What development frameworks are supported by the Design System?

The Unifi Design System continues to grow! We currently support Angular, React, and Web.

If you have an immediate need for a component or framework, please email unifidesignsystem@nelnet.net so we can work with you to add it to our roadmap.

Who do I contact with more questions or to get involved?

We would love more contributors and reviewers, and we welcome your feedback! We invite you to join our Teams community.

Frequently Asked Questions about Unifi Angular

When will the Unifi Angular library be available?

Unifi Angular 1.0 was released on October 23, 2020.  To monitor what's coming up next, you can keep an eye on our Roadmap page in Confluence.

Why not just use Angular Material?

Many of the Angular Material components are not ADA compliant, and some take a massive amount of customizing in order to match our styles and pass ADA standards. This reduces their stability, scalability, and overall ability to meet the needs of Nelnet applications. The Unifi Angular library components is ADA compliant according to WCAG 2.0 standards and pass 508 compliance. They will also be branded and styled accordingly, ready to use right out of the box, which facilitates rapid development and faster time to market.

We analyzed the need for a Unifi Angular Material library. We came to the conclusion that any teams who are already using Angular Material in their projects have already put the time and effort into making those components ADA compliant and customizing the styles. We decided our time and resources would be better spent creating custom Unifi Angular components.

Can I use Unifi Angular components in an app already using Angular Material?

Yes. The Unifi Angular components are standalone components, much like the Angular Material components, and can be imported into an existing project without conflict.