TL;DR

✦ AT A GLANCE ✦ IN A NUTSHELL

TL;DR

✦ AT A GLANCE ✦ IN A NUTSHELL

✲ Government of India

Creating a unified design framework for Indian government platforms

Creating a scalable design system to bring consistency, accessibility, and usability to digital experiences across Indian government ministries — serving millions of citizens through more cohesive public service platforms.

Timeline

4 months (Nov 2023 - Jan 2024)

Team

Design & Project Lead – Shruti Kabo ・ Design Directors – George Mathews, Sapna Behar ・ UI/UX – Sehaj Gujral, Vaanchhita Raj ・ Research & Content – Vedant Manwadkar, Roshni Raghu, Aparna Menon, Nandini Chaubey ・ Visual – Noel Putoor, Jayashree V ・ Project Management – Nandini Chaubey

Scope

UX Strategy, Information Architecture, Content Structuring, Design System Foundation, Visual & Component Design, Cross-Ministry Pilot Implementation, Developer & Migration Tooling

Press & Links

DBIM Toolkit

Gov Press Release

Deccan Herald

✲ Government of India

Creating a unified design framework for Indian government platforms

Creating a scalable design system to bring consistency, accessibility, and usability to digital experiences across Indian government ministries — serving millions of citizens through more cohesive public service platforms.

Timeline

4 months (Nov 2023 - Jan 2024)

Team

Design & Project Lead – Shruti Kabo ・ Design Directors – George Mathews, Sapna Behar ・ UI/UX – Sehaj Gujral, Vaanchhita Raj ・ Research & Content – Vedant Manwadkar, Roshni Raghu, Aparna Menon, Nandini Chaubey ・ Visual – Noel Putoor, Jayashree V ・ Project Management – Nandini Chaubey

Scope

UX Strategy, Information Architecture, Content Structuring, Design System Foundation, Visual & Component Design, Cross-Ministry Pilot Implementation, Developer & Migration Tooling

Press & Links

DBIM Toolkit

Gov Press Release

Deccan Herald

✲ Government of India

Creating a unified design framework for Indian government platforms

Creating a scalable design system to bring consistency, accessibility, and usability to digital experiences across Indian government ministries — serving millions of citizens through more cohesive public service platforms.

Timeline

4 months (Nov 2023 - Jan 2024)

Team

Design & Project Lead – Shruti Kabo ・ Design Directors – George Mathews, Sapna Behar ・ UI/UX – Sehaj Gujral, Vaanchhita Raj ・ Research & Content – Vedant Manwadkar, Roshni Raghu, Aparna Menon, Nandini Chaubey ・ Visual – Noel Putoor, Jayashree V ・ Project Management – Nandini Chaubey

Scope

UX Strategy, Information Architecture, Content Structuring, Design System Foundation, Visual & Component Design, Cross-Ministry Pilot Implementation, Developer & Migration Tooling

Press & Links

DBIM Toolkit

Gov Press Release

Deccan Herald

Key Contributions

  • Led the day-to-day execution and delivery of the project, aligning stakeholders across ministries, IT teams, and policy groups under a tight 12-week timeline

  • Directed workstreams for content, visual design, and interaction — overseeing system creation across digital and print touchpoints

  • Designed and implemented pilot websites for five ministries, testing flexibility, structure, and localisation at scale

  • Developed a modular information architecture and scalable component system grounded in accessibility and brand alignment

  • Created a migration toolkit and clear documentation to enable adoption by non-designers, internal teams, and third-party vendors

  • Delivered final handoff assets including component libraries, annotated flows, and usage guidance to support future rollout

Deliverables

  • 5 exemplar ministry website redesign with developer handoff

  • Design System and brand guidelines website
    Figma UI Kit

  • Information architecture and CMS-ready content structure

  • WCAG accessibility compliance

  • Migration toolkit

  • Stakeholder workshop and presentation materials

Setting the Stage

Ministry websites in India have long been a maze to navigate. Each ministry operates independently, which means their websites all look and feel different. A design system introduced earlier gave ministries the freedom to choose from multiple templates, but instead of simplifying things, it made the ecosystem even more fragmented. Citizens were left struggling to find reliable information and identify authentic websites—a critical need for India’s vast population.

Ministry websites in India have long been a maze to navigate. Each ministry operates independently, which means their websites all look and feel different. A design system introduced earlier gave ministries the freedom to choose from multiple templates, but instead of simplifying things, it made the ecosystem even more fragmented. Citizens were left struggling to find reliable information and identify authentic websites—a critical need for India’s vast population.

Understanding the Challenge

In just twelve weeks, we were tasked with creating a cohesive, scalable system that simplified navigation, improved usability, and allowed for ministry-specific flexibility.

The challenge: each site had its own structure, vast content, and inconsistent design—making it hard for users to find information or trust the platform.

Our goal was to design a system usable by everyone—across languages, devices, and abilities—while supporting the needs of internal teams and legacy systems.

We focused on five high-impact ministries—Electronics & IT, Health, Rural Development, Agriculture, and Skill Development—as a blueprint for unifying digital experiences across all 43 ministries.

In just twelve weeks, we were tasked with creating a cohesive, scalable system that simplified navigation, improved usability, and allowed for ministry-specific flexibility.

The challenge: each site had its own structure, vast content, and inconsistent design—making it hard for users to find information or trust the platform.

Our goal was to design a system usable by everyone—across languages, devices, and abilities—while supporting the needs of internal teams and legacy systems.

We focused on five high-impact ministries—Electronics & IT, Health, Rural Development, Agriculture, and Skill Development—as a blueprint for unifying digital experiences across all 43 ministries.

Approach & Process

Discovery & Audit
We began with a collaborative audit of ministry websites and print assets, identifying fragmentation in structure, visual design, navigation logic, and accessibility standards. This surfaced critical usability gaps and shaped early hypotheses for the system.

Information Architecture
Using the audit insights, we proposed a modular IA model that could scale across ministries while remaining intuitive to citizens. This included redefining navigation patterns, consolidating duplicate structures, and creating clear pathways for different user types.

Content Strategy
To support the new IA, we worked with the content team to restructure existing material into clear, role-driven categories. This involved trimming redundancies, improving labelling, and preparing content for integration into the CMS.

I turned high-level vision into day-to-day clarity, guiding a multi-disciplinary team toward scalable outcomes.

The Design Solution

Designing for Trust and Usability
We made the homepage clean and approachable using a bento-box layout to highlight key updates, events, and social media feeds. The header became the anchor, prominently displaying the ministry name, AI-enabled search with speech input, and links to key services.

Each ministry chose from seven monochromatic colour palettes to maintain individuality while keeping the overall system cohesive. Design tokens made it easy to integrate features like high-contrast mode, ensuring accessibility across the board.

Designing for Trust and Usability
We made the homepage clean and approachable using a bento-box layout to highlight key updates, events, and social media feeds. The header became the anchor, prominently displaying the ministry name, AI-enabled search with speech input, and links to key services.

Each ministry chose from seven monochromatic colour palettes to maintain individuality while keeping the overall system cohesive. Design tokens made it easy to integrate features like high-contrast mode, ensuring accessibility across the board.

Start with who you are. We designed journeys around real people, not pages — so everyone finds what they need, faster.

Streamlining Navigation
We designed a 3-level site architecture to ensure no information was buried further than three clicks away. The primary navigation had six main sections, with 80% of the content housed within second-level pages for easy access and a clean structure.

Using a persona-based approach, we created pathways for different user types. For instance, a student looking for skill-building programs could avoid wading through content meant for entrepreneurs seeking grants. It boiled down to two simple questions: who are you? and what are you looking for?

Building a Scalable Design System
We delivered templates for all key page types that integrated the use of tokens, a Figma UI Kit for future customisations, and a designed a dedicated design system website to guide ministries through the migration process. This website became a playbook for transitioning to the new framework.

Streamlining Navigation
We designed a 3-level site architecture to ensure no information was buried further than three clicks away. The primary navigation had six main sections, with 80% of the content housed within second-level pages for easy access and a clean structure.

Using a persona-based approach, we created pathways for different user types. For instance, a student looking for skill-building programs could avoid wading through content meant for entrepreneurs seeking grants. It boiled down to two simple questions: who are you? and what are you looking for?

Building a Scalable Design System
We delivered templates for all key page types that integrated the use of tokens, a Figma UI Kit for future customisations, and a designed a dedicated design system website to guide ministries through the migration process. This website became a playbook for transitioning to the new framework.

Design System & Migration

The design system included a comprehensive Figma UI kit, a scalable component library, and detailed visual and accessibility guidelines tailored for government use. To support real-world adoption, we also created step-by-step migration walkthroughs — helping internal teams and vendors implement the system with clarity and confidence, even without prior design experience.

The design system included a comprehensive Figma UI kit, a scalable component library, and detailed visual and accessibility guidelines tailored for government use. To support real-world adoption, we also created step-by-step migration walkthroughs — helping internal teams and vendors implement the system with clarity and confidence, even without prior design experience.

More than just a design system — a migration-ready guide. This site doesn’t just house components; it walks ministries through implementation with clear steps, walkthroughs, and tools for non-design teams.

Impact & Outcomes

Key results include:

  • 50M+ citizens served annually through redesigned ministry portals

  • 1000+ web pages restructured across five pilot ministries

  • 3 key ministries piloted including Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.

  • 50+ ministries system-ready for future rollout using the design system

  • WCAG-compliant & localisation-ready for India’s multilingual population

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