DIRECT.GOV

Senior information architect / BOSTOCK&POLITT / COI 2006

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

Context

DirectGov was the UK government’s central digital service platform, providing information on rights, entitlements and public services.

Bostock & Pollitt were a London design agency, who won this flagship Central Office of Information account due to their championing of iterative design methodologies, combined with my experience as a senior information and user experience architect.

Problem

Users required clear, structured access to a wide range of government information services, from Driving License renewal to immigration processes.

Stakeholders ranged across departments with and without ministers, from DVLA to Border Force and HMRC, with relationships undergoing restructuring overseen by the Home Office and the Central Office of Information, according to strict standards of information presentation, usability and accessibility.

My Role

  • Led high level and detailed information architecture discovery and refinement tasks across service categories

  • Collaborated with policy, editorial and IPSV government taxonomy departmental stakeholders and consultants

  • Conducted usability testing and IA validation (card sorting, wireframes, goal finding)

  • Collaborated with B&P designers and developers to iterate on design standards for site navigation, search, results, information presentation and editorial flows

  • Presented findings at departmental and ministerial stakeholder reviews.

APPROACH

  • Extensive mixed methods research, including stakeholder interviews, ethnographic studies, and user journey mapping across a wide range of services, including driving, immigration, housing and benefits.

  • Helped shift the digital ecosystem from organisation-centric content models to user-centred, research-driven design, aligned with the IPSV taxonomy and stringent usability and accessibility standards.

  • Presented both high level, big concept information architecture concepts, including navigation, search, results filtering, process wizards, and detailed wireframes for user journey widgets.

  • Advocated for and installed UXR practices across a large, siloed civil service stakeholder environment

High Level Architecture exploring global information categories and structures.

Homepage wireframe exploring how information, services and user-facing categories could be surfaced.

Outcome

  • Improved task-based navigation for high-traffic public service journeys

  • Strengthened consistency and usability across structured service categories

  • Handed over IPSV—aligned high level architecture including search, results filtering, article-level page layouts, process wizard and widget designs

ROLES & SKILLS

  • Information Architecture

  • Mixed methods research

  • Iterative testing

  • Contextual enquiry

  • Standardised architecture and UI across various user journeys

  • IPSV integration

  • Pitch & Delivery presentations.

Previous

NHS Choices
Next

M&C SAATCHI