Federal Government Application Portal

The Challenge

A federal government client’s digital services had fragmented across multiple portals, each serving different user groups with different workflows and different levels of accessibility compliance. The brief was to consolidate into a single, unified application portal, built in a modular fashion so steps and questions could be customised into future new application flows. The portal included autocomplete address lookups, eWay payment gateway integration, ABR (Australian Business Register) lookups, and needed to meet WCAG 2.2 accessibility standards within federal delivery guardrails.

Discovery and Design

I co-facilitated discovery alongside the functional consultant and was sole UX/UI designer across the entire engagement. The portal served four distinct user types (applicants, representatives, contributors, and organisations), each with fundamentally different mental models, goals, and regulatory contexts. Discovery involved 20+ internal stakeholders with conflicting requirements and critical governance considerations; no end-user research was conducted, so the design work required synthesising stakeholder perspectives into coherent user-type models.

Co-facilitated 9 workshops across the transformation programme as the complexity of aligning stakeholder expectations became clear.

I also authored a formal proposal for the adoption of Figma by this agency, making the case for modern design tooling within a federal environment. This was the first time Figma was successfully used at this agency.

Hands-On Build

This wasn’t a hand-off-to-dev engagement. I built the portal hands-on as a Power Pages developer, working within federal security and compliance frameworks. The tech stack spanned Microsoft D365, Power Pages, Dataverse and Power Automate, with responsive front-end development using advanced CSS, JavaScript and Liquid scripting. I built metadata-driven smart forms and dashboards to support diverse case types and user roles, plus a model-driven app for internal staff to manage submissions and contributions. Beyond build, I contributed solution design, system architecture and technical documentation, producing UI screens, complex application flows, and process design diagrams to support solution architecture and stakeholder alignment. The accessibility standard was non-negotiable: WCAG 2.2 AA, verified through axe, Lighthouse, and Siteimprove across all user flows.

Why This Matters

The combination of Baseline security clearance + WCAG 2.2 delivery + federal portal build is the rarest credential set in my portfolio. Very few candidates bring both the design capability and the hands-on development skills to deliver accessible government digital services at this level, with the clearance to do it.

Hard Skills

Power Pages, D365, Dataverse, Power Automate, model-driven apps, Liquid scripting, JavaScript, advanced CSS, WCAG 2.2 AA, axe, Lighthouse, Siteimprove, Figma, business analysis, solution design, system architecture, process design diagrams, technical documentation, responsive front-end development

Soft Skills

Workshop facilitation (9 workshops across the transformation programme), stakeholder alignment across 20+ stakeholders, Figma adoption advocacy (first use at this agency), working within federal security and compliance frameworks, impartial requirements synthesis across competing stakeholder needs, interactive prototyping for senior stakeholder engagement and BDA approval

Note: This client is permanently non-disclosable. The contribution, method, and technical approach described here are my own to share; the client identity, agency name, and any identifying details cannot be disclosed.