The right design system for the right cause.

SDG.design is an open library of DESIGN.md files for the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Each one was built for a specific human context — field workers, survivors, learners, activists. Open any goal. Copy the file. Paste into Stitch. Done.

AI can generate a beautiful app in seconds. But it doesn't know your users. It doesn't know that a water monitor needs to work with gloves on. That a health app is often opened at 3am by someone who is scared. That a climate app that shows only bad news makes people stop caring.

SDG.design encodes that knowledge — one design file per goal, built by people who understand the context.

The difference

Same prompt.
Different outcome.

Generic prompt
·Generic blue because water is blue
·No status color semantics
·Proportional fonts on sensor data
·No offline considerations
·WCAG 4.5:1 contrast standard
·Designed for someone browsing calmly
SDG.design kit
✓7:1 contrast for sunlight legibility
✓Safe · Warning · Critical — locked semantics
✓Inter Mono for all data alignment
✓Offline states designed first
✓7:1 for gloved hands in direct sunlight
✓Designed for someone who is scared at 3am

How it works

Two layers.
One file.

Aesthetic Layer— Design tokens
#29BFE0
#DDA63A
#4C9B47
#C5192D
Typography
Libre Franklin 700 · JetBrains Mono
Spacing
64px margins · 0px gutters · 1px rules
Radius
0px — sharp everywhere
Accessible Layer— Domain knowledge
The 3am Test
Does this UI work when a healthcare worker is exhausted?
The Despair Trap
Avoiding dark patterns in micro-loan applications.
Field Conditions
Optimising sync frequency for low-connectivity zones.
Coercive Control
Designing safety tools that protect against abuser surveillance.
The Shared Device
Backward compatibility for one phone, five siblings.
The Trust Gap
Why anonymous reporting triples civic engagement volume.

Community model

The best kit
rises to the top.

01
Submit

Fork the repo. Create a DESIGN.md for any SDG and any scenario. Open a pull request with a description of who you built it for and why.

02
Rate

The community rates every kit after using it in Stitch. Domain expertise from NGO designers, civic technologists, and field workers — not just generalists.

03
Use

The top-rated kit for each SDG and scenario rises to the front. Browse a goal, download the system, generate an impact product in Stitch.

// Contribution protocol
git clone https://github.com/tiago-varandas/sdg-design
cd kits/
mkdir {kit_name}
touch DESIGN.md // Mandatory: rigorous documentation
touch theme.json // Token architecture
npm run validate // Runs accessibility and semantic checks
git push origin feature/{kit_name}

Every builder working on the world's hardest problems deserves a design foundation that understands the context they're building for.

Apache 2.0  ·  Not affiliated with the United Nations  ·  github.com/tiago-varandas/sdg-design