unum

An open-source project

One foundation to build on, for all.

Unum is an open-source project exploring a simpler, accessible and secure way to build and manage websites. It aims to guide beginners without restricting experts, while keeping control with the people who build and own them.

Building a website shouldn’t create a system you can no longer understand.

Websites often begin simply. Over time, plugins, dependencies, abstractions and workarounds accumulate. Accessibility gets left until later. Beginners struggle to find their way, while experienced users can end up fighting systems that were meant to help them.

These tools solve real problems. Unum asks whether we can keep their convenience without gradually losing understanding, control or ownership.

Start with a foundation designed to stay understandable.

Unum is exploring a small set of reusable components, with accessibility and security built in.

Beginners should receive guidance that helps them understand what they are building. Experienced users should be free to work directly with the system and extend it when needed. Open standards should help websites and their data remain understandable, portable and owned by the people who create them.

Principles to build by.

Leave it better.

Every change should improve the system rather than add another workaround.

  1. Keep it simple.

    Complexity should have to justify itself.

  2. Accessible from the beginning.

    Accessibility is part of building, not an audit at the end.

  3. Secure by default.

    Sensible security should be built into the foundation.

  4. Guidance without restriction.

    Beginners should never feel lost; experienced users should never be slowed down.

  5. Keep control.

    Abstraction should make things easier without taking control away.

  6. Open and portable.

    Favour open standards, understandable systems and ownership of your website and data.

A foundation in progress.

Unum is at an early, exploratory stage. Its principles are taking shape, with current work focused on the architecture, documentation and early implementation.

Unum is intended to be open source. The repository will be made public once it contains enough useful thinking, documentation and implementation work for others to explore.

Build with care. Leave it better.

Unum is being developed around a straightforward belief: the systems behind websites should remain accessible, secure, understandable and under the control of the people who build and own them.