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Design and research practice area

The CivicActions Design team works across many realms of design - from content and product design to research, service, and experience design. We adapt our approach to meet each challenge and draw from different design methodologies, like human-centered design, evidence-based design, agile design, and domain-driven design.

We are strategists and storytellers, analysts and activators, dedicated to improving experiences that serve the public good. Our designers are embedded across federal agencies, driving impact across public health, public science, veteran experiences, and beyond.

Our designers combine design excellence with cross-disciplinary certifications and skills, with many of our designers holding credentials such as the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) certification, the Acquia Drupal Site Builder certification, the Google Analytics Certification, and more. We are often in attendance at events and conferences such as Config, DrupalCon, DrupalCamps, DrupalGovCon, and the Information Architecture Conference.

Our variety of experience and expertise allows us to truly center the humans we serve in all the work we do from strategy to iteration to final delivery.

For CivicActioners, check out our internal Design Practice Area site.

What We Design

  • We design systems: the underlying architecture that powers services.
  • We design processes: how people and information move through a service.
  • We design structures: content models, data models, IA, navigation, and decision paths.
  • We design governance: how content, patterns, and services are maintained.
  • We design content: what people read, hear, understand and interact with.
  • We design interactions: how people engage with tools, forms, and flows
  • We design data experiences: how information is collected, displayed, and understood.
  • We design connections: between people, systems, policies, and touchpoints.
  • We design trust: by making services clear, usable, and accessible.
  • We design outcomes: not just artifacts, but real-world, measurable impact for users and agencies.

Areas of expertise and past performance

  • User research & discovery
  • Content design & strategy
  • Enterprise content migration
  • Service & systems design
  • Information architecture
  • Design strategy & facilitation
  • Interaction & interface design
  • Accessible design
  • SEO & search experience
  • Analytics & evaluation
  • Design & research ops
  • System training and technical documentation

CivicActions Design Principles

We start with discovery, not solutions

  • We begin by listening
  • We make every effort to design proactively, not reactively
  • We believe in incremental experimentation through iteration
  • We explore solutions through research, best practices, and equitable, accessible design approaches

We approach our work with authentic empathy

  • We acknowledge each other's whole self
  • We can show care for others when we show care for ourselves
  • We acknowledge that we all work in different ways and we respect difference in thought, approach, and execution

Good enough should not be our default

  • We strive to fix what is broken
  • We advocate for, and educate others, on design best practices
  • We seek to find solutions for all of humanity, not just a subset of users
  • We have a growth mindset that is open to constructive feedback

We achieve through imagination and iteration

  • We push ourselves and each other to go beyond what we think we're capable of
  • We know that success requires collaboration and teamwork
  • We use metrics to gauge impact and guide decisions

Design practice area touchpoints

All Creative Calls

All Creative Calls are monthly calls led by design leadership. These calls help us broaden our context, collaborate together, and align on our ways of working and what we prioritize. Sometimes we will invite special guests from other practice areas to collaborate with us. Some of our recent ACC topics were Open by Design, AI and Design, Research Ops, and How to Collaborate with the Growth Team.

We add the agenda recap, slide decks, and recordings to our ACC Notes after each meeting.

Design Open Office Hours

These are monthly calls hosted by design leadership that don't have an agenda and are not recorded. Any designer can bring any topic they'd like to discuss. Topics can include getting feedback on work, getting help with a problem, discussing company or practice area strategy, discussing current events, or even just sharing something you're excited about.

Design Roundtable

This monthly meeting's agenda is driven by the design team members. It is an informal touchpoint where anyone can bring a design topic to discuss. Learn more about roundtables.

Internal initiatives + side quests

Our design team spends most of our time on billable projects, but from time-to-time, may need to support internal initiatives. Design leadership will facilitate assigning designers to and getting approval for internal initiatives. If you have an idea for an internal initiative or want to be involved in a prioritized internal initiative effort, talk to your manager first.

Professional development

We've included some possible professional development resources below. You have $1200 per year (after your 90-day intro period) to spend on professional development. You can read the full list of design prodev ideas in the Career & Development Hub of our internal Design Practice Area site.

Tools

This is our main CivicActions-owned design stack. If you need help or access to these tools, create an IT Support Ticket.

Client projects may require you to use other design tools. Some of the other tools you may encounter on projects as a designer include Atlassian tools such as Jira and Confluence, Github, Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and more. We also leverage AI tools such as Gemini, ChatGPT, and more, but be sure to refer to our AI policy before using AI tools for client work. You can request a license from IT via an IT Support Ticket.

Have a design request?

Use the #design-collabs slack channel to ask for internal CivicActions design support. Please include:

  • The context for the request, including the target audience
  • Your preferred delivery format (document, design, user flow, graphics, illustration, etc)
  • A description or visualization of the solution/suggestion
  • A timeline that includes enough lead time to iterate on the design before the deadline
  • The point of contact for the request and describe any timeline requirements

Some of the projects we have helped support so far include Drupal module icon design, marketing one-pagers, UX consulting on Drupal module development, and more.

Design leadership will review your request, and assign a designer to collaborate with you based on team member availability, skills required, and project priority level.

Last update October 10, 2025.