Summary
This guide helps Opries stay consistent across public communications, product design, documentation, and implementation. It joins the public brand and platform UI system so both tracks use the same purpose, voice, colours, accessibility principles, and design logic.
How to use this guide
Use the Public Brand section when preparing website content, member communications, documents, presentations, newsletters, grant updates, and partner-facing materials.
Use the Platform UI section when designing or building the Opries application. It maps the same brand intent into shadcn, Tailwind, dashboard navigation, data tables, forms, compliance states, and audit copy.
Design tracks
| Track | Audience | Primary job |
|---|---|---|
| Public brand | Landcare groups, NRM partners, funders, councils, volunteers, members | Explain Opries clearly and credibly. |
| Platform UI | Coordinators, admins, committee members, program managers, auditors | Help people complete operational work with confidence. |
Principles
- Make governance feel manageable. Reduce uncertainty, avoid grand claims, and show the next useful action.
- Respect sector knowledge. Speak to community-led environmental work without over-simplifying local context.
- Design for evidence. Records, status, approvals, and history should be visible without feeling punitive.
- Keep the system code-ready. Brand decisions should translate into tokens, components, and repeatable patterns.
- Design for more people by default. Use Universal Design principles so guidance, layouts, and product patterns work across different abilities, devices, confidence levels, and working conditions.
- Teach in more than one way. Use Universal Design for Learning when explaining Opries to the public or to users: summaries, examples, steps, tables, and clear next actions should support different ways of learning.
- Prefer disciplined visual structure. Use Swiss/International design principles: clear grids, strong alignment, restrained typography, purposeful whitespace, and minimal decoration.
Decision Checklist
Before adding or changing a pattern, check:
| Question | What to confirm |
|---|---|
| Use case | Who needs this, what are they trying to do, and what pressure are they under? |
| Accessibility | Does the pattern work with readable text, visible focus, contrast, labels, and mobile layout? |
| Universal Design | Can a wider range of people use it without special adaptation? |
| Learning | If it teaches something, are there examples, steps, or summaries beyond long prose? |
| Visual discipline | Is the layout aligned, purposeful, and free of unnecessary decoration? |
Starter assets
The v1 package includes placeholder logo notes, colour swatches, app icon direction, and token exports in public/brand/ and assets/tokens/. Replace placeholders with final trademark artwork when available.