The challenge

The Isle of Man Government aimed to modernise its digital services by improving how it provided information to citizens and businesses. The existing gov.im website had become fragmented, with inconsistent layouts, duplicated effort across departments, and limited flexibility to scale. It became clear there was a need for a modular, consistent system that could simplify updates, reduce development overhead, and improve the user journey across all government services.

My Role

As the Lead Product Designer, I was responsible for:
- Developing the UX strategy for a modular component system
- Designing a reusable UI library for flexible content creation
- Conducting stakeholder workshops

The Approach

I began by auditing 10 sub-domains and analysing behavioural data. Also the PM and me hold a discovery session with the client to surface key friction points.
Key findings:
- Over 80% of content followed just six layout patterns.
- Teams relied heavily on developers for basic content updates.
- There was no shared design system or content governance.
These insights led to the concept of a component-based design system with flexible modules that could be rearranged and reused as needed.

The Solution

The design solution we developed closely followed the principles of the UK Government Design System (GDS). We created a suite of modular, accessible components — including banners, carousels, accordions, icon blocks, and sidebars — all structured within a refreshed design system. These components were designed to be highly flexible in both layout and usage, empowering internal teams to assemble consistent, on-brand pages without developer intervention.
In line with GDS best practices, we also introduced a unified visual language across sub-domains, reducing friction for users moving between services and reinforcing a sense of trust and coherence throughout the digital experience. Although the Isle of Man project was part of a competitive proposal that was not ultimately selected, the design system and white-label platform I developed formed the foundation for how we approached future government clients with similar needs.