U.S. Web Design System (USWDS)

Role

Product manager and design contributor (2015-2016) for the U.S. Web Design System, establishing the foundation for consistent, trustworthy government digital services across all levels of government.

Challenge

Government websites followed no consistent patterns, making it difficult for the public to distinguish legitimate government services from scams. Each agency developed its own visual language and interaction patterns, creating confusion and undermining trust in digital government services. Government sites didn’t even follow consistent URL patterns, and many agencies put no thought into conveying trustworthiness to users.

This created a fundamental problem: in an era of increasing digital fraud, the public had no reliable way to identify authentic government websites. The lack of standards also meant agencies were duplicating effort, with each team solving the same basic problems independently.

When I joined the project in 2015, the U.S. Web Design System was behind schedule with no shipped product and faced an imminent leadership transition with the acting product manager departing.

Intervention and Recovery

Project Focus and Delivery

Stepped in to establish product discipline: defined target audiences (federal web managers), scoped a minimum viable product, implemented triage processes for rapid decision-making, and shipped version 1.0 by end of summer 2015.

Strategic Audience Focus

Targeted federal web managers - staff who understood basic code but weren’t full developers - making it feasible for small government teams to launch professional, accessible sites quickly. Paired the design system with research-backed guidance and common government patterns (date pickers, address forms, multilingual components).

Building Public Trust Through Design

Leveraged Federal Front Door research insights to address a critical gap: helping the public identify legitimate government websites. Created the “Here’s how you know” pattern - an expandable header that educates users about two reliable trust indicators: .gov domains and HTTPS certificates.

The pattern transforms a simple “official website” banner into an interactive educational tool, teaching citizens to recognize authentic government sites while incentivizing agencies to adopt proper security practices.

Systems Impact

Government-Wide Adoption

USWDS became the foundation for consistent government digital presence across federal, state, and local levels. The design system established shared vocabulary and standards that reduced development costs while improving user experience.

International Influence

The trust-building header pattern achieved global impact - the European Union and other governments adapted the approach for their own official websites, proving the universal need for citizen education about digital government authenticity.

Policy Through Design

The system created positive pressure for government agencies to migrate to .gov domains and implement proper security certificates, advancing cybersecurity goals through user experience design rather than mandate.

Key Innovation

The “Here’s how you know” pattern exemplifies government-unique design thinking: unlike private sector products, government services must teach citizens to identify trustworthy interactions while remaining accessible to potential misuse. The solution educated users about universal trust indicators rather than relying on proprietary visual branding.

Long-term Strategy

Paired USWDS with Vote.gov as a reference implementation, creating a feedback loop between design system development and real-world testing. This approach provided continuous insights into pattern effectiveness while demonstrating the system's capabilities through high-visibility government service.

Lessons Learned

The tension between serving web managers versus developers remains ongoing - the system has oscillated between these audiences multiple times. The reference implementation strategy proved valuable for rapid iteration and credibility, although the design system later moved to a more independent approach (and is now being reconsidered).

This project demonstrated that government-wide standards require both technical excellence and change management across hundreds of independent agencies with varying capabilities and priorities.