Scottish Goverment
The Scottish Government needed a digital platform to help organisations - from small businesses to public bodies - embed equality and human rights practices into how they operate. The content itself was dense and technical: policy frameworks, legal obligations, and best-practice guidance that needed to be usable by people without a policy background.
As lead designer, I took the client's early concept - organising the subject matter around six key drivers - and turned it into a full content architecture, UX flow, and accessible UI, built to Scottish Government's own design system and delivered in partnership with the development team.
The Problem
No existing digital platform brought this guidance together in one place.
The subject matter was broad and easy to get lost in - the challenge was making it navigable without oversimplifying it. The platform needed to work for a wide range of users, from policy officers to business owners with no prior knowledge of the framework.
It had to meet WCAG 2.2 accessibility standards and align with the existing Scottish Government Design System.
The Process
Understanding the framework
Worked from the client's original six-driver concept and built it out into a proper content architecture - grouping and structuring content so users could find what applied to them without wading through everything.
Stakeholder collaboration
Shared wireframes and prototypes directly with project stakeholders for review. These were also passed on to their wider external stakeholders for sign-off, so the designs had to hold up on their own without me in the room to explain them.
Research input
Research here was less formal user testing and more targeted:
Relayed feedback from client-side project leads on the content architecture and how content would be managed long-term.
Direct review of the Scottish Government Design System to understand existing accessibility standards, components, and design precedent so the platform would feel consistent with other government services, not like a bolt-on.
Design & build
Designed the full UX flow and UI, then worked closely with developers to make sure design intent survived into build - particularly around accessible components.
Highlights
Simplifying a complex framework into a usable flow
Took a broad, technical policy framework and translated it into six clear content pillars, making dense subject matter approachable without stripping out its substance.
Designing a self-assessment tool from scratch
Built a 24-question, multi-step self-assessment with a dynamic dashboard that summarises a user's results and links directly to the priority sections of the site they should act on first - turning a static guidance platform into something actionable.
Accessible by design
Designed to WCAG 2.2 standards from the outset, working within the Scottish Government Design System to ensure consistency with other public sector services.
Hands-on collaboration with development
Worked directly with developers on accessible component behaviour - large touch targets on buttons, keyboard- and screen-reader-friendly filters, and accessible search functionality - to make sure accessibility held up in the built product, not just in the designs.
Crafted additional assets to support human interaction
Created brand assets that add additional context for first-time users navigating the dense subject matter - all designed to align with Scottish Government brand guidelines.
Outcome
The platform was well received by the client, with a key stakeholder describing it as one of the best digital platforms they had published as a public body.