--- title: App design guide to go live (bit by bit) description: In the coming months we will be rolling out the new app design guidelines, which will give you the latest toolkit best practices and patterns so you can make your own convergent app for Ubuntu. Why do we need design guidelines? The guidelines are a big part of communicating design practices and philosophy to the […] url: https://canonical.com/blog/app-design-guide-goes-live-bit-by-bit --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Canonical](https://canonical.com/blog/author/canonical "More about Canonical") 11 May 2016 # App design guide to go live (bit by bit) [app design guides](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/app-design-guides) [Design](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/design) --- Share the article In the coming months we will be rolling out the new app design guidelines, which will give you the latest toolkit best practices and patterns so you can make your own convergent app for Ubuntu. ### Why do we need design guidelines? The guidelines are a big part of communicating design practices and philosophy to the community and the wider audience. Without it, we wouldn’t have consistency in our design language and people who want to develop or design on Ubuntu wouldn’t be able to maintain the identity we so love. Throughout the guide you will see the rationale behind our design values through the development our Suru visual language and philosophy. ### What’s to come? We are going to start releasing parts of the Building Blocks section first, which contains all the components you need to start building your application. Back in November last year we took a look at defining styles for the guide e.g. how to illustrate examples of best practice. The guide will feature UI examples of how the component will look inside an app across screen sizes, as well as breaking them apart so you can see what goes where and how. Here’s a sneak peak… After user testing on the current design guide, users said it was hard to find content as it was lost in the large amounts of text, so we have given the guide a bit of a nip and tuck by balancing visuals and text accordingly. ### All new sections As well as ‘Get Started’, ‘Patterns’ and ‘Building blocks’ we will now introduce: ‘System integration’ and ‘Resources’ to the list, as well as an overview page for each section highlighting key areas. System integration will feature the number of a touchpoints your app can plug into inside the Ubuntu operating system shell, such as the launcher, notifications and indicators. For example, you can add a count emblem over your app icon inside the Launcher to show unread messages or available updates. The ‘Resources’ section will feature downloads such as grid layout templates, the new colour palette and our icon set. ### Over to you… We can’t wait to see your app designs and hope that our design practices will help you achieve a great user experience on Ubuntu. [Get in touch Interested in running Ubuntu in your organization?](https://ubuntu.com/about/contact-us/form) ## Sign up for our newsletter Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. In submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Notice](https://canonical.com/legal/data-privacy/contact) and [Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/data-privacy). Sign up ## Share on --- ## Related posts [### Challenges designers face in open source (and how to fix them)](https://canonical.com/blog/challenges-designers-face-in-open-source-and-how-to-fix-them) Open source powers up to 90% of modern software, yet many projects lack usability. Canonical’s Design team surveyed 115 cross-functional professionals to uncover the 4 core... [Kola Ojoodide](https://canonical.com/blog/author/kola-ojoodide) 26 June 2026 [### Template: Streamlining open source design contributions](https://canonical.com/blog/template-streamlining-open-source-design-contributions) As designers working at Canonical, we’re always thinking about open source. We believe that encouraging more designers to contribute to open source benefits everyone, from the... 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