Design Source Vocabularies

Primary role: named vocabulary source inventory.

Repository Boundary

This page inventories the named sources whose terms this domain records, with the fields needed to re-verify each reading later. It records which surfaces each source publishes, not what any surface should contain. It does not adjudicate a universal definition of design system or rank sources.

Reusable Method

1. Name the source and its owner.
2. Assign the source kind using Design Source Kinds.
3. Record the published vocabulary surfaces as verbatim layer names.
4. Record the version boundary and status, and stamp reviewed_on and retrieved_on.
5. Re-verify before any promotion beyond experimental, and record what changed.

Recorded Sources

Source	Owner	Source kind	Vocabulary surface	Version boundary	Status	Reviewed on
Material 3	Google	design-system	foundations, components, styles, design tokens	Living site; reviewed page set below	current	2026-08-18
Human Interface Guidelines	Apple	platform-guideline	components, materials, layout, patterns	OS release cycle; reviewed page set	current	2026-08-18
Fluent 2	Microsoft	design-system	foundations, components, patterns, tokens	Living site; reviewed page set	current	2026-08-18
Carbon	IBM	design-system	foundations including tokens, components, patterns	Living site; reviewed page set	current	2026-08-18
Polaris	Shopify	design-system	foundations including design tokens, components, patterns, icons	Living site; package versions for code	current	2026-08-18
Design Tokens Format	Design Tokens Community Group	specification	token, group, alias data model	Format Module 2025.10; Community Group report, not a W3C Recommendation	current	2026-09-08
Figma	Figma	design-tool	variables, modes, components as tool constructs	Product and help-center version	current	2026-08-18

All entries cite official first-party URLs (authority: official); retrieved_on equals the corresponding reviewed_on. Entries retaining 2026-08-18 are prior bounded readings, not rechecked claims for the current session.

Direct Sources For Current Term Records

The Term Cases use the narrower source sets below. Locators in the term table point to the exact document or section, not a general vendor home page. The first set retains its 2026-09-08 review; later readings do not backdate or refresh unrelated terms.

Named source	Source kind	Reviewed surface and version	Re-review trigger
Figma	design-tool	Variables, collections, modes and components; dated help pages	Tool data model or cited help meaning changes
DTCG	specification	2025.10 Format and Second Editors' Draft, 2022-06-14	A comparison changes version; retain the historical scope
CSSWG	web-platform	CSS Custom Properties Level 1	The cited runtime-value definition changes
Carbon	design-system	What is Carbon and patterns overview	Component or pattern scope changes
StyleGallery	pattern-library	Local Layout hub and its repository contract	Layout ownership or pattern contract changes

The DTCG 2022 reading is historical evidence of a draft, not an implementation recommendation. A direct locator and a recorded reading establish provenance for the local summary; independent semantic approval remains separate.

Sources Rechecked On 2026-09-21

Named source	Source kind	Reviewed surface and version	Re-review trigger
DTCG	specification	Format 2025.10; token, group, alias, and typography meanings	Format version or the selected comparison changes
DTCG Resolver	specification	Resolver 2025.10; modifiers and context selection	Resolver version or context-resolution contract changes
Fluent 2	design-system	Design tokens and typography; dated guidance	Token-layer or target-platform role meaning changes
Carbon	design-system	Color overview and usage; dated role/theme/layer guidance	Color role, theme, or contextual layer semantics change
WHATWG HTML	web-platform	Popover and dialog; Living Standard	Presentation or element semantics change
WAI-ARIA	specification	Dialog role in WAI-ARIA 1.2	Role version, meaning, or native representation changes
Apple HIG	platform-guideline	Popovers and typography; dated platform guidance	Platform convention or text-style behavior changes
Material 3 Compose	design-system	Material 3 typography in Compose; implementation surface of the system	Named style slots or system-to-implementation mapping changes
CSSWG	web-platform	Custom Properties Level 1 and Fonts Level 4; runtime representations	Property or shorthand semantics change

For this set, retrieved_on and reviewed_on are 2026-09-21. Apple bodies were inspected through their official documentation JSON when the HTML reader returned a JavaScript shell. The previous Carbon /guidelines/color/ locators were unavailable in the reader; the reviewed official pages use /elements/color/. No historical source record was silently relabeled current. DTCG modules remain Community Group reports, not W3C Recommendations. Source review here is by the author and does not satisfy independent semantic promotion.

Freshness Policy

Every recorded source carries: source_url, source_kind, a version boundary (specification version, product version, OS cycle, or dated reviewed page set), status in current / deprecated / historical / unknown, reviewed_on, and retrieved_on. Living sites without publishable versions record the reviewed page set and a re-review trigger. Terms with era history additionally record introduced_in, deprecated_in, renamed_to, and historical_scope in Cross-System Term Cases.

Reading The Inventory

• Four of the seven broad browse sources are design systems; HIG is a platform guideline, DTCG is a specification, Figma is a tool. Horizontal comparison is valid only within a kind, or through typed relations with boundaries.
• foundations labels are near-equivalent as layer names, but each system decides what the layer contains.
• The DTCG row records an interchange format, not a published token set.
• Dates above are the reading bound; any later restructure is new evidence, not a back-fill.

Opinionated Guidance

• Cite surfaces verbatim; do not translate one source's layer names into another's inside a record.
• Add a source only when its vocabulary surface is public, named, and officially linkable.
• Record doc-surface and code-package vocabulary separately when they diverge.
• Treat a renamed surface as new evidence with a new review date.

Platform-Specific Guidance

Platform-owned sources appear here only for terminology records; interaction-convention comparison routes to Platform Guides.

Unsupported Absolutes

• A source's layer count is not a maturity measure.
• Absence of a surface does not mean the source lacks that capability.
• This inventory does not verify any link resolves today beyond its recorded review date.
• Inclusion here is not an endorsement for product adoption.

Verification Contract

Before promotion or material edit, re-verify each cited surface still exists and still publishes the recorded layer names; update status and reviewed_on; confirm no entry quotes upstream definitional text.

Source, License, And Attribution

This page is locally authored. Every cited source remains the authority on its own vocabulary; links are usage evidence, and no upstream prose, tables, or code samples are reproduced.

IA Navigation

Parent: Design Terminology. Next: Design Concept Families.