AI-Guided Discovery for Government Digital Tools
Lead Product Designer | UX, UI, Prompt Engineering, Branding
DEX is a desktop and mobile platform that helps Whole-of-Government (WOG) officers find the right digital products faster, using AI-guided search and structured product cards.
Timeline
Feb 2025 - Oct 2025
Collab
1 Product Owner, 4 Engineers/DBAs
Tools
Figma
Supabase
Lovable
OpenAI
Context
No central source of truth for government digital products
Most staff relied on memory (of experienced staff), word of mouth, scattered links, old documents, and spreadsheets - leading to duplicated ideas being build, prolonged search times, and stalled execution.
During a preliminary research, these pain points were discovered:
83%
officers rely on ad-hoc discovery methods
2.8/5
are satisfied with current search approaches
The Problem
WOG officers need an easy way to discover and understand existing digital solutions, but fragmented information hinders discoverability and reusability. This leads to prolonged search times and impacts timelines.
To address this, we set out to create a one-stop, searchable, AI-guided platform that brings together all WOG digital products — making discovery faster, collaboration easier, and decision-making more informed.
Research At A Glance
40+
Survey Responses
7
In-depth Interviews
80%
Enthusiasm for a unified platform
70%
Find AI-assistance valuable for discovery
Goals & Success Metrics
1
FASTER DISCOVERY
Target:
Minutes, not 5.2 days
Baseline Satisfaction:
>2.8/5
Desired Outcome:
Streamlined Workflows
2
BETTER VISIBILITY & REUSE
Centralised Product Info
Reduce Duplication
Increase Product Adoption (+30% Target)
3
STRONGER COMMUNITY & COLLABORATION
Enable upvotes, comments, discussions
Support engagement between officers & product teams
Prototype Validation:
100% said they would value DEX
Design Process
MAPPING THE DISCOVERY PROCESS
Identified the core tasks: searching, comparing, understanding, and discussing digital products across WOG.
EXPLORING AI-GUIDED SEARCH
Designed four guided prompts to help officers refine problems, explore solutions, and surface relevant tools quickly.
DESIGNING THE PRODUCT CATALOGUE
Created an interactive card-based catalogue surfacing key details at a glance — phase, specs, features, and quick actions.
SHAPING THE PRODUCT DETAIL PAGE
Built a transparent, structured product page showing documentation, features, technical info, team contacts,
roadmaps and community discussion threads.
BUILDING COMMUNITY INTERACTIONS
Designed upvotes, comments, discussions, and sharing features to connect officers and product teams.
Solution
AI-GUIDED SEARCH
Four guided prompts help officers refine problems, find similar tools, get inspiration, or explore collaboration opportunities — supporting the different behaviours of our user archetypes.
INTERACTIVE CATALOGUE WITH CLEAR METADATA
Built an interactive card catalogue enriched with tags, filters, product phases, and specs — allowing officers to quickly evaluate product fit, compare alternatives and discover cross-agency solutions effortlessly.
RICH PRODUCT DETAIL PAGES
Transparent, comprehensive pages with documentation, roadmaps, team profiles, adoption metrics and links to repositories or related tools.
COMMUNITY FEATURES
Built-in discussions, upvotes, comments, and shared use cases allow officers to learn from one another and engage directly with product teams.
Rapid MVP Pivot (Hackathon Build)
Pivot Fast to Ship the MVP
We started on Outsystems, but it could not keep up with the design direction. With only three days left before Feedback Bazaar, we switched to Lovable.dev, where my teammate and I rebuilt the flows and refined the AI search prompts.
Uploading PNGs of the designs with structured prompts helped Lovable match the intended experience much more closely. That collaboration helped us deliver a functional MVP in time for feedback and validate it two weeks before the finale.
Impact & Outcomes
BEFORE
-
No central repository
-
Reliance on memory/ scattered documents
-
Hard to compare tools
-
No clear way to reach product teams
-
Inconsistent discovery workflows
AFTER
-
One-stop platform
-
AI-guided search
-
Interactive product catalogue
-
Rich product detail pages
-
Discussions, upvotes, and team visibility
-
Discovery time reduced from days → minutes
📉 80% REDUCTION IN DISCOVERY TIME
Search time went from 5.2 days → minutes, enabling officers to make faster, better-informed decisions across agencies.
👍 100% POSITIVE PROTOTYPE VALIDATION
All officers who tested the prototype said they would use DEX, citing improved clarity, speed, and confidence in evaluating tools.
📈 INCREASED VISIBILITY OF WOG PRODUCTS
Officers reported that DEX made it significantly easier to:
-
understand what already exists
-
compare available tools
-
identify the correct product team - this directly supports better reuse of digital solutions.
🤝 STRENGTHENED CROSS-AGENCY COLLABORATION
Features like discussions, comments, and upvotes made it easier for officers to learn from one another and surface real use cases — reducing silos across WOG.
🚀 EARLY MOMENTUM FOR INCUBATION
The strong validation and clear demand enabled the project to progress into a 6-month incubation backed by leadership support.
Branding
DEX's Design Identity
Discovery, Clarity, Speed and a Sense of Community across the Whole-of-Government
