GDS-Standard UCD for Caribbean Public Sector Digital Transformation

GDS-standard user-centred design for Caribbean public services.

Arallium is a specialist UCD consultancy applying proven UK Government Digital Service standards to public sector digital transformation. Education is our primary focus — supported by expertise in taxation, healthcare, social protection, immigration, and customs.

Get in touch Our services

14+ Years UK Government Experience

100% GDS Standards Compliant

6 Public Sector Specialisms

Anglo-
Caribbean Business

Our specialist sectors

We focus where user-centred design matters most

Six public sector areas where confusing forms, inaccessible portals, and unclear communications have lasting consequences — for citizens, for institutions, and for trust in government.

Primary specialism

Education

From school admissions to examination platforms and teacher-facing services, we design digital services for education ministries, examination boards, and school systems across the Caribbean — services that work for every student, parent, teacher, and administrator.

Education services →

Supporting specialism

Taxation

HMRC experience and tax adviser background — applied to revenue authority digital services, e-filing platforms, and taxpayer-facing services across CARICOM.

Taxation services →

Supporting specialism

Healthcare

Patient-facing services, health ministry digital programmes, electronic records, and clinician tools — designed with the rigour life-sensitive services demand.

Healthcare services →

Supporting specialism

Social Protection

Benefits, conditional cash transfers, and social welfare services are among the highest-stakes citizen-facing digital journeys — and among the least designed with users in mind.

Social protection services →

Supporting specialism

Immigration & Border Services

CBI programmes, CARICOM free movement, e-passports, and border agency digital services — high-stakes, complex, and ripe for user-centred redesign.

Immigration services →

Supporting specialism

Customs & Trade

IDB-funded customs modernisation across CARICOM is creating demand for UCD expertise in import/export services, trade portals, and customs authority internal tools.

Customs & trade services →

What we do

Why GDS standards matter for Caribbean public services

GOV.UK has set the global benchmark for accessible, user-centred government services. Arallium brings this proven excellence to the Caribbean — adapting world-class design standards to local contexts and citizen needs.

Proven excellence

GOV.UK consolidated thousands of services into a single, user-friendly platform. We apply the same thinking to Caribbean public sector services across education, tax, health, and social protection.

Best practice

GDS standards are widely respected benchmarks for usability and accessibility — applicable to any government digital service, in any Caribbean nation, in any sector.

Immediate impact

Adopting GDS-style standards reduces costs, increases trust, and delivers faster, simpler experiences — for students, taxpayers, patients, and benefit claimants alike.

How we work

A user-centred design process built for public services

Three phases, grounded in research with the people who actually use public services — students, taxpayers, patients, and the administrators who serve them.

Phase 1

Discovery

We begin by uncovering how the current service works — on paper, in people's heads, and across departments. Contextual research with users and staff surfaces pain points, workarounds, and unmet needs before any design begins.

Phase 2

Design

Armed with insight, we reimagine the service journey — simplifying steps, removing duplication, and designing inclusive, accessible interactions. Prototypes are tested with real users early and often, before any code is written.

Phase 3

Delivery

We work alongside developers and policy leads to embed design into delivery, run usability testing, refine content, and ensure accessibility compliance — then monitor usage and iterate after go-live.

About Arallium

Strategic UX insight. Deep government expertise.

Arallium transforms complex public services into intuitive digital experiences — combining strategic UX insight, deep government expertise, and user-centred design. With experience leading design for UK public services and major technology firms including Google, Cisco, Sage, and Lenovo, we create inclusive, scalable, and impactful solutions.

We are proud to be an Anglo-CARICOM business. Our Caribbean heritage is a genuine differentiator — we understand the policy context, the citizen landscape, and the institutional realities of government across the region in a way few consultancies can claim.

Our approach →

Who we work with

Governments and consultancies across the region

Arallium partners directly with governments and ministries, and embeds as a specialist UCD partner within larger consultancy and delivery teams.

Ministries of Education
Revenue Authorities & Tax Ministries
Ministries of Health
Social Protection Agencies
Immigration & Border Services
Customs & Trade Authorities
CARICOM & Regional Bodies
Big 4 & Management Consultancies
IDB, World Bank & Development Partners

Whether you represent a government ministry, a consultancy seeking a specialist UCD sub-partner, or a development finance organisation, we would welcome a conversation. Learn more →

Thought leadership

The limits of in-house user-centred design

Many governments now invest in building user-centred design capability in-house. This is a positive development — but in practice, in-house teams frequently encounter structural constraints that limit their effectiveness:

Narrow exposure. In-house teams work within a single ministry. They rarely develop the cross-sector pattern recognition that comes from working across education, tax, and health simultaneously.
Methodological depth. Without sustained investment and peer challenge, UCD practice can drift — research becomes tokenistic, and design reverts to best-guess rather than evidence-based decision-making.
Short-termism. In-house UCD capability is often the first to be cut when budgets tighten — before the skills have been properly embedded.

Arallium's role is to complement and strengthen in-house capability — not replace it. We bring cross-sector expertise and an external challenge perspective that accelerates skill transfer and reduces delivery risk.

Our approach →

Track record

UK government delivery. Caribbean ambition.

Our experience is grounded in direct delivery on large-scale UK government digital programmes — currently active on DfE, previously across HMRC. The same GDS rigour, applied to Caribbean public services.

Current engagement Current engagement — Department for Educationmdash; UK Department for Education

£25m school digital infrastructure programme across 4,000+ schools

Currently leading interaction design on the DfE's capital grant scheme upgrading network infrastructure across 4,000+ eligible schools in England. Full GDS agile lifecycle: Discovery service blueprints, ecosystem maps, stakeholder analysis. GOV.UK Design System and WCAG 2.1 AA applied throughout.

Delivered: a working Power Pages portal prototype using the DfE Design System, within Microsoft 365 platform constraints — handed over to development with complete user journeys, task flows, and screen flows.

Why it matters for the Caribbean: This is exactly the scale and complexity of digital programme that Caribbean ministries of education are now commissioning — with IDB and World Bank backing. Arallium brings that delivery experience directly.

HMRC — 87 live services

PAYE, Corporation Tax, VAT, Self Assessment & more

18 months of interaction design across HMRC's Digital Application Support Services — designing and prototyping across 87 live tax services covering every major UK tax discipline. The foundation of Arallium's taxation sector specialism.

HMRC — Enabling Multiple Agents

Self Assessment dashboard for secondary agents

Delivered a fully functional dashboard for secondary agents submitting clients' Self Assessment returns. Full GDS Discovery → Alpha → Beta → Live lifecycle. Prototype coded in HTML and CSS and tested with users.

Commercial pedigree

UCD leadership for Accenture and major technology clients

Senior user-centred design leadership embedded within Accenture Song, delivering for Google, Lenovo, Cisco, and Sage — managing research, design, prototyping, and testing across large-scale digital platforms for organisations operating at global scale.

Get in touch

Let's transform your service.

Whether you're a government ministry, a consultancy seeking a UCD partner, or a development finance organisation — get in touch to explore what human-centred digital change could look like for your institution.

Email

contact@arallium.com

Connect

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