GovTide.
Bringing design consistency and accessibility to a data-heavy government platform.
(Overview)
- Industry
- GovTech
- Role
- UI/UX Designer
- Timeline
- 2020 — 2021
- Team
- 2 designers · 10 engineers · PM/BA
- Tools
- Figma, Storybook, Stark, Zeroheight
At AIT I was the UI/UX designer responsible for the GovTide design system, dashboards and the platform's data-heavy screens, used daily by contractors and government-related organizations. Accessibility wasn't a nice-to-have — it was a requirement I designed into every component.
(01) — The Problem
The platform had grown module by module, each with its own patterns: five table styles, three filter paradigms, inconsistent status colors. Users — often non-technical administrators — worked in dense data tables for hours, and finding a specific contract or compliance record took real effort. WCAG conformance was mandatory but had been treated as a retrofit, and complex multi-step workflows had no consistent structure.
(02) — The Process
I started with an interface inventory across all modules, then built the design system from the data layer up: tables, filters, statuses and forms first, decorative components last. Every component shipped with accessibility built in — contrast, focus order, keyboard paths, screen-reader labels. Dashboards were redesigned around each organization's most-used records and saved views.
(03) — The Solution
One table system now handles every dataset on the platform: consistent filtering, saved views, bulk actions and density modes. Multi-step workflows share a single stepper pattern with explicit save states. The dashboard surfaces active contracts and deadlines instead of generic charts, and the entire core flow passes WCAG 2.1 AA.
(Outcome)
Time to locate a specific record dropped about 40% in moderated tests. Design-system coverage reached 90% of screens within three quarters, visibly cutting front-end rework. Core flows passed an external WCAG 2.1 AA audit, and training time for new organizations shortened by a third.
