Background

The client’s website was undergoing a bold redesign: new tech, new processes, new branding.

Initially, things were going well until we learned another team’s redesign looked very different, despite being based on the same ui-kit. We were all using the same UI-kit but designs and patterns were being applied differently, depending on the team. This discrepancy highlighted the need for a shared resource: a Design System.

This was our turning point. Not just a visual mismatch, but a systemic need for alignment.

Overview

Government contracting, in general, can pose many unique challenges regarding communication and alignment when building a product.

  • Communication silos. Due to multiple contractors working on the same website, communication silos are inevitable. Contracting teams are not incentivized to share information due to the focus on contract rebids.
  • Onboarding overhead. Many contracts are set up to be rebid every few years. Sometimes the contractor wins the rebid, but sometimes a new contractor wins. This causes whole parts of the product to change hands. Everyone from managers to engineers leaves the product, and another team moves in.
  • Approval red tape. Government websites can be slow to change and get approval for the change. Finding ways to improve efficiency might be easy but slow to implement.
  • Unique business requirements. New bills passed in Congress can directly impact product requirements, often leading to non-user-centric designs that must be adapted quickly.

The solution? A design system. It provides a single source of truth, aligns stakeholders, and fosters consistency.

How a Design System Solves These Challenges

Breaking Down Communication Silos

A design system creates shared vocabulary and documentation that transcends team boundaries. Instead of each contractor maintaining their own interpretation of design patterns, everyone references the same components, tokens, and guidelines. This shared foundation encourages collaboration over competition because teams can contribute improvements that benefit everyone.

Real impact: When design decisions are documented and centralized, teams spend less time reinventing solutions and more time building on proven patterns. This reduces the incentive to hoard information since the system itself becomes the competitive advantage.

Reducing Onboarding Overhead

When contracts change hands, new teams typically face months of reverse-engineering existing designs and understanding undocumented decisions. A design system provides comprehensive documentation, usage guidelines, and rationale behind design choices.

Real impact: New contractors can onboard quicker. They inherit not just the visual designs, but the thinking behind them. Component libraries, design tokens, and clear documentation mean less institutional knowledge is lost during transitions.

Streamlining Approval Processes

Government approval cycles are notoriously slow, but a design system can pre-approve common patterns. Instead of seeking approval for every button style or form layout, teams can reference approved system components.

Real impact: Minor updates use existing, approved patterns while major changes focus approval discussions on truly strategic decisions. This reduces the approval bottleneck for routine design work and speeds up iteration cycles.

Adapting to Changing Requirements

When new legislation requires rapid changes, a design system provides flexible building blocks rather than fixed designs. Patterns and components can adapt to the needs of changing requirements and changes can be pushed out to teams quickly and efficiently.

Real impact: Instead of redesigning from scratch, teams can pull down components from the design system. If new patterns are needs than patterns can be solved at a design system level that teams can quickly absorb. New requirements can often be addressed in a centralized way that removes teams need to spend time on those changes.

Confident with our solution to increase consistency with the rebranded website, our next focus was to get stakeholder approval.

Note: This article was co-written with the help of AI to improve clarity and structure.