About this project

Establishing a unified design foundation for French Polynesia's digital government services

The challenge

French Polynesia's government digital services operated in silos, with each administrative department creating interfaces independently. This resulted in:

Fragmented user experiences across government touchpoints
No shared design language or reusable components
Accessibility gaps in public-facing services
Limited design maturity within technical teams
Inefficient workflows with duplicated design efforts

The government needed a scalable, accessible, and maintainable design system to unify their digital ecosystem—but without existing design culture, governance structures, or formalized UX processes.

Strategic approach

Rather than jumping directly into component creation, I established design systems as both a product and a practice, focusing on three parallel tracks:

1. Systems Thinking
Building governance, principles, and shared vocabulary before visual assets

2. Applied Learning
Embedding UX/DS principles through hands-on collaboration with government departments

3. Progressive Maturity
Evolving from experimentation to standardization, acknowledging the organization's starting point

Process and methodology

I began by establishing the "why" before the "what":

Conducted stakeholder interviews across 5 departments (DAF, DICP, DDC, PR, SDT)
Mapped existing digital services and identified common patterns
Defined design principles anchored in public service values: accessibility, clarity, efficiency, trust
Established governance framework: decision-making processes, roles, and contribution models

Over 50% of time was dedicated to hands-on UX/UI work with specific departments. This wasn't a distraction—it was essential research:

Project Rumia (DDC, PR, SDT): Multi-entity service requiring complex user journeys
Project Paréo (DICP): Internal tools for administrative workflows
Project Anahei (DAF): Public-facing financial services

Through these collaborations, I:

Identified recurring patterns and edge cases in government services
Co-designed solutions with civil servants who understand citizen needs
Tested component usability in real contexts
Built trust and design literacy within technical teams

Key learnings

Design systems aren't just component libraries—they're organizational change projects. Success requires understanding stakeholder psychology, building coalitions, and meeting organizations where they are, not where you wish they were.

In government contexts especially, trust precedes adoption. Proving value through hands-on collaboration was essential before asking teams to adopt new processes or tools.

Design maturity can't be forced—it must be cultivated. The system's sophistication should match the organization's capacity to maintain it.