Industry
Government Communications
Role
Designer
Date
2017-2018
Location
Pretoria, South Africa
Client
Govchat
Official South African citizen engagement platform
GovChat was a South African citizen-engagement platform designed to improve communication between the public and national, provincial and local government.
The platform enabled citizens to access services and communicate through chatbots, WhatsApp and USSD, creating a more accessible channel for service-delivery communication.
Responsibilities included UI/UX design, application mock-ups, testing, brand applications, presentations, marketing collateral, launch support and web design.
The work was produced in collaboration with Magnetic Digital and government communications teams.
01
UX/UI design
The central UX challenge was accessibility. GovChat needed to support a broad national audience with varying levels of digital literacy, education and access to technology.
The interface therefore prioritised simplicity: limited navigation choices, clear iconography, short labels and focused user journeys reduced complexity and made key services easier to access.
Rather than adding unnecessary functionality, the design concentrated on making essential actions immediately understandable and reducing opportunities for user error.
02
cORPORATE iDENTITY
Designed and implemented a suite of branded communication assets for GovChat, including business cards, email signatures, and corporate stationery. A speech bubble motif was used as a unifying visual element throughout the system, reinforcing the brand’s focus on conversation and public engagement.
To further strengthen the identity, a custom die-cut business card was developed using the speech bubble shape, creating a memorable and recognisable brand experience beyond traditional stationery.
03
Launch Support
Worked in collaboration with Magnetic Digital to assist GovChat’s launch content across multiple social platforms, establishing branded communication channels and supporting community growth around the platform. I additionally continued handling presentations and pitch decks.
8M+ active users
13M welfare applicants represented in platform data
GovChat provided the opportunity to apply UX principles to a nationally deployed civic platform with unusually broad accessibility requirements. The project reinforced the importance of simplicity, clear information architecture and focused user journeys when designing services for diverse audiences.
With the benefit of later experience, greater emphasis would be placed on service-status feedback, complaint tracking, filtering and security integration. These additions would give users greater visibility into the progress and resolution of submitted requests.
Design Awards
The branding for Govchat achieved a 1st place finish in the category of Corporate Identity – Brand Identity in the Muse Awards for Design (2020)
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