govuk-frontend 5.3 was recently released, containing a new Password Input component.
This is exciting news for two reasons. Firstly, because government websites now have a standard, tested and accessible way of allowing users to check their password inputs. And secondly, because I helped to build it.
The Password Input is based upon the Show Password component, which I helped to create as part of some experimental work a few years ago exploring a user account on GOV.UK.
That work later moved on but the Show Password component remained in our code. We stopped using it, but other developers asked about the component and used it in their own applications. It seemed like a useful thing, so towards the end of 2021 I created a proposal to have it added to the Design System.
There are a lot of proposals to work through and the Design System team are a busy lot, but sometime last year I found out they were planning on looking at my proposal for an upcoming release. They'd been thinking about how to assist users when entering passwords for some time. We had a few conversations about the component and some of the practical and accessibility issues that had arisen during its development, and I had the opportunity to highlight some of its features.
From that point the team took on the development work. The final code is mostly based on the original component, but there was a lot of additional development and testing that went into it.
If you're a government service using govuk-frontend as of the 26th of March this year you can now use the Password Input component in your service. If you're interested in how the Design System deals with proposals, you can read their contribution criteria.
- Release notes for govuk-frontend 5.3.
- The Design System guidance on asking users for passwords.
- The Design System website, for any other questions.