Self-Service Data Portal
Project Details
Tl;dr
As part of a multi‑year, government‑led transformation programme focused on critical national infrastructure for the next 100 years, I worked within the Customer and Digital stream as a UX Designer supporting the design and delivery of systems, data tools, and digital services to ensure continuity of operations. My primary contribution was to the design of a self‑service data portal that enabled employees to easily access Power BI reporting alongside data‑specific training, guidance, and community support. The portal aimed to strengthen data‑informed decision‑making while building data capability and engagement across the organisation, balancing user value, governance, and long‑term sustainability.
Safe, affordable, and reliable drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services are essential for public health and environmental wellbeing. Yet, a major contamination incident and subsequent government inquiry exposed widespread failures across regulation, capability, and investment. Existing delivery models simply could not keep pace with ageing infrastructure, climate pressures, rising standards, and a significant funding gap.
In this environment, government utility teams needed to make timely, fact-based decisions. The vision was a self-service data portal: a solution that could provide accessible, trusted insights, empower employees at all levels, and foster a data-informed culture capable of delivering better outcomes for communities and the environment.
I joined as a UX Designer, supporting the Lead UX Designer within the self-service portal team, alongside a junior and senior business strategist. Together, we collaborated across a Customer and Digital stream of over 100 professionals spanning operations, data, product, policy, and technology.
My role was broad and hands-on:
- Communicating design rationale and outcomes to senior stakeholders
- Supporting the lead UX designer across end‑to‑end design and delivery
- Defining and refining user and business requirements
- Identifying and developing end‑user personas and user models
- Planning and supporting user interviews and usability testing
- Designing wireframes and solution concepts in Figma & XD
By the time we joined, the programme had been underway for over a year. Access to real users was almost impossible due to political sensitivity and strict programme secrecy. We had to find alternative ways to understand who would be using the portal.
We began by analysing organisational data on roles and employee numbers, scanning water-sector role patterns, and reviewing insights from previous research. Through discussions with internal programme teams and ongoing sense-checking with Customer and Learning & Development colleagues, we formed early hypotheses about users and their likely behaviours.
To make assumptions more tangible, we created a matrix of motivation vs technical capability, helping reason about behaviors—from data-hesitant users to highly literate specialists. We mapped likely end-user groups (administrators, consumers, contributors, traditional users, and developers) and linked 60+ initial portal requirements to these groups. This provided a shared understanding of the problem space despite limited access to real users.
With user types and requirements in hand, we moved into ideation and early wireframing. We didn’t just design screens; we explored how different users would experience the portal, considering onboarding, complexity, and levels of self-service capability.
We developed user flows to trace real-world paths and uncover potential friction points, while comparative pattern analysis of similar self-service platforms ensured our ideas were grounded in best practice. Internal walkthroughs with SMEs in data, security, and governance helped us identify technical or compliance constraints early, and mapping permissions against user types highlighted governance impacts.
This work shaped the four key areas of the portal: Home, Data Products, Reports, and Training, ensuring a structure that balanced usability, governance, and feasibility.
Finally, we gained access to a small number of actual end users, complemented by insights from individuals with prior experience in similar roles that were within the programme. Before engaging external users, we ran internal tests on initial wireframes and user flows, uncovering friction points and refining interactions.
From this feedback, we produced ‘mid-fidelity’ colour wireframes and presented them to end users in a single, focused session. Every interaction had to count, given tight timelines. During this stage, we introduced six key usability features, including onboarding messaging, customisation options, calls to action, search, and help support.We also ensured accessibility and inclusive design, created interactive prototypes in Figma to simulate flows, and aligned every design decision with policy, security, and governance requirements, collaborating closely with architects and programme stakeholders. This stage balanced user needs, technical realities, and programme constraints, creating a design ready for delivery.
As designs matured, many questions around portal purpose and feature prioritisation remained. To address this, we developed a gallery walkthrough.
Key stakeholders experienced the design as if visiting an art gallery: they could move through the space, explore concepts, interact with user flows, and leave feedback on sticky notes. This immersive, collaborative approach allowed leadership to provide insights, clarify uncertainties, and influence strategic decisions dynamically.
The walkthrough was a resounding success. The programme leader recognised the portal as a flagship initiative:
“The data service portal is one of the main flagships of the programme, thanks for the great work you all have been doing.” – Senior Stakeholder
Feedback from this session was carefully analysed and incorporated, resulting in seven critical next steps, including learning modules, collaboration areas, and integrations with Power BI, GIS, Salesforce, and other systems. The refined designs were handed over to developers, providing a clear foundation for future build.
Through this project, we:
- Developed six user personas and validated them with 10 user interviews
- Designed low- and high-fidelity prototypes incorporating 20 core portal features from 20 business requirements
- Introduced six key usability features to improve onboarding, support, and adoption
- Aligned leadership through a gallery walkthrough, shaping the portal strategy collaboratively
While the work received high praise and demonstrated the value of user-focused design under constraint, only a few months later a change in government led to the entire transformation programme being abolished, halting the portal build.
Despite this, the project left a lasting legacy: it provided practical frameworks for designing under constraint, demonstrated how to align stakeholders in complex, politically sensitive programmes, and established a foundation for future self-service data initiatives.
Educating stakeholders on why, not just how, builds alignment and trust.
Explaining the reasoning behind design decisions helped policy-driven and linear-minded stakeholders understand the value and purpose of the portal, enabling better decision-making and reducing friction.
Immersive, hands-on experiences drive consensus at scale.
The gallery walkthrough proved that letting stakeholders experience, explore, and interact with designs encourages engagement, surfaces critical feedback, and aligns diverse groups more effectively than static presentations.
Prototyping and hypothesis-driven design enable progress under uncertainty.
When direct access to end users was restricted, flexible personas, conceptual journeys, and iterative prototypes allowed the team to validate ideas, guide strategy, and advocate for user needs despite constraints.