Project Overview

In 2021, through Atomix, I was embedded with the South Australian Government across the Department of Premier and Cabinet, SA Health, the Electoral Commission SA (ECSA), and the Department of Energy and Mining. I worked as a UX and service designer across five citizen-facing digital products and one internal service mapping engagement.

Every project followed the same process: research and service design first, then design, then testing, before anything was built. Where products were live, we validated against both business and user requirements before signing off.

The context was genuinely pressured. During COVID-19, regulations changed mid-sprint. Stakeholders had institutional constraints that weren't always visible. Timelines were fixed in some cases by things like election dates that don't move. Working through that taught me a lot about how to operate in government environments and how to advocate for users when the pressure is to just ship.

My Work

Home Quarantine App (SA Health)

Led UX design for a COVID-19 compliance app that verified home quarantine adherence through location tracking and facial recognition check-ins. SA Health regulations were the source material and my job was translating those into flows that people in stressful circumstances could follow without needing support.

I owned the full end-to-end flow design and worked closely with the dev team throughout build, making sure what shipped matched the designed intent and flagging where technical constraints required design decisions to be revisited.

Research included a large-scale diary study with quarantining users during the initial version, capturing real behaviour over time rather than relying on single-session feedback. I also designed and ran unmoderated testing surveys to validate flows before build. Stakeholder meetings with SA Health were ongoing throughout, sometimes mid-sprint, as compliance requirements changed.

Exemption status dashboard (SA Health)

Designed the end-to-end flow for COVID-19 border exemption applications and status tracking. The dashboard had to handle multiple states (pending, approved, declined) across a wide range of exemption categories, each with different eligibility rules.

Stakeholder sessions with SA Health were ongoing. Border policy changed frequently, which meant exemption criteria changed too. Keeping the design aligned with current regulation while maintaining a coherent user experience required constant communication and fast iteration.

IP3 licence renewal (Service SA)

Designed the licence renewal flow within the new (unreleased) MySA Gov app, integrating with existing government identity infrastructure. Stakeholder engagement included working with Service SA to understand the existing manual process and map what needed to change to support a digital-first renewal pathway.

Electoral Commission SA voting app (ECSA)

Designed the official ECSA state election application (not released). Features included a digital voter card, candidate discovery, polling station map, voting calendar, and civic education content for first-time voters.

The scope was broad and the deadline was fixed. Ran stakeholder sessions with the Electoral Commission to work through content, legal requirements, and accessibility needs across each feature. The deadline not moving meant scope and prioritisation decisions had to be made clearly and early.

MySA Gov services portal redesign

Redesigned the central government services dashboard, the main touchpoint for South Australians accessing government services online. The redesign covered in-progress applications, active services, account management, and the overall information architecture of the portal.

Ran moderated in-person usability testing, led synthesis sessions, and generated actionable takeaways. Research findings were used to push back on both developer instincts and stakeholder preferences where evidence showed they conflicted with how users actually navigated the system. Making that case required research-backed reasoning, not just design opinion.

Department of Energy and Mining: service mapping

Ran a service design engagement with the Department of Energy and Mining to audit manual services and map which could be converted to online flows. The work involved stakeholder interviews, service blueprinting, and prioritisation. The project didn't proceed to build due to budget constraints, but the mapping and recommendations were completed and delivered.

Outcome

Across these projects, I was part of shipping multiple government digital services used by South Australians during one of the most operationally demanding periods in the state's recent history. The work covered the full lifecycle, from research and service design through to build validation, on products with real compliance and legal weight behind them.

Learnings

Working embedded in government under live COVID-19 conditions taught me how to design under genuine pressure. Not just deadline pressure, but the kind where regulations change mid-project and stakeholders carry institutional constraints you can't always see upfront.

The biggest thing I took from this work was learning how to push back effectively. Developers have instincts, stakeholders have preferences, and those don't always align with what users actually need. I learned how to build the case with evidence from research and testing rather than design opinion, and how to hold that position when there's pressure to move fast.

The end-to-end scope, going from research to design to testing before building, and then validating once built, became the standard I hold all product work to.