What is Indigo

Indigo is founded upon the following principles:

1. Design for users: Design for the users of the website or application first by understanding the user's needs well, through use of good research and data to back up design decisions. 
2. Modularity: Modularity is at the core of Indigo and enables the reuse of the design system, patterns and, ultimately, the code.
3. Technical independence: Indigo is technically agnostic by being built using web standards principles.
4. Build the interface as the brand: Through intelligent and creative use of UCL's brand typography and colours, the brand is built into the very heart of Indigo.
5. Design for content: Design for content, not devices or screen widths, and aim for content parity across media and devices.
6. Simplicity and clarity at the core: Wherever possible, reduce complexity in terms of functionality, user experience and, above all, copywriting. Labelling should be clear and bear users in mind.
7. Provide a toolkit for ease of first use: Indigo is built for rapid design and development by providing a toolkit of patterns for site commissioners, content creators, designers and developers.
8. Build sustainable components: The design patterns are agnostic to container width allowing placement across the design system, enabling future-friendly adoption by myriad screen sizes.
9. Place Indigo at the heart of new site building: Indigo is the de facto standard and starting point for all new site creation.
10. Easy to learn and pleasant to use: Indigo is easy to learn and use for site owners, designers and developers.
11. Smart defaults: Where user transactions are required (e.g. search, filling and submitting forms), ensure the default settings are devoid of ambiguity.