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:

Systems Thinking
Building governance, principles, and shared vocabulary before visual assets,
Applied Learning
Embedding UX/DS principles through hands-on collaboration with government departments
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

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

Results

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.

Credits

Project governance
Luc Ho-Wan
Jean-Louis Garry
Lucas Willery

UXUI Strategy
Lucas Willery

Development
Jordan Failloux
Robin Cordier
Lucas Willery