Global Experience Language

Defining the Global Experience Language across education.

PROJECT FOCUS

STRATEGY

UX RESEARCH

UX/UI DESIGN

DESIGN SYSTEM

CHALLENGE

TAFE NSW faced the critical challenge of unifying its diverse digital touchpoints under a single, cohesive user experience. With varying platforms, tools, and workflows across departments, inconsistency was hindering their ability to deliver a seamless experience for users.
Compounding this complexity was the need to address organisational silos and varying levels of design maturity. TAFE NSW required a scalable solution that not only standardised their digital presence but also aligned with their long-term strategic goals. The challenge wasn’t just technical—it was cultural and operational, requiring a shift in mindset and processes to ensure a successful and sustainable transformation.

APPROACH

To address TAFE NSW's need for a cohesive and scalable digital experience, our team embarked on a strategic and comprehensive journey to implement a Global Experience Language (GEL) – a sophisticated design system tailored to meet their organisational goals. This foundational phase extended far beyond design execution, establishing the necessary frameworks, processes, and organisational structures to ensure long-term success.

We began by assessing TAFE NSW’s design maturity and operational landscape to create a roadmap for implementing the GEL. This included establishing workflows, governance models, and documentation standards to align stakeholders across departments. We also recommended the optimal structure and composition of the design team, tailored to support and maintain the design system.

The approach prioritised collaboration, with workshops and training to empower internal teams and embed design system practices across the organisation. By integrating tools, processes, and frameworks, we laid the groundwork for consistency and innovation, leading to long term success.

OUR OBJECTIVE

To create a scalable Global Experience Language that unifies TAFE NSW’s digital ecosystem, improves design consistency, champions internal teams, and enhances design system maturity within the organisation.

We spoke to 10 teams across the company

This provided us with valuable insights into team workflows, the pain points they face, their relationships and interactions with other teams, their ways of working, and their level of exposure to and openness towards design systems, technologies, and platforms in use.

We audited & reviewed 43 platforms

We mapped all internal and out-of-the-box platforms across the student and staff journeys, identifying their purpose, touchpoint, limitations, and benefits for a design system. The audited platforms were further reviewed for components, modules, content, typography, and iconography.

Mapping the customer journey

We recreated customer journey maps based on existing journeys to pinpoint student and staff pain points in each phase. This analysis demonstrated how a design system could benefit each phase and identified any system limitations or maintenance opportunities throughout the journey.

Establishing a design system Figma library from scratch

We explored setup options for design systems in Figma and recommended the best approach for the client. We helped establish their Figma design system by creating templates for component pages, workflow documentation, and foundational elements such as text styles, grids, icons, colour styles, and shadows.

Adoption and governance strategy

This process included facilitating workshops with key stakeholders, along with extensive strategic planning and documentation on how the client will adopt, govern, and evolve the design system across all teams.

“Our GEL is progressing nicely with our internal design team, the team at ECD really set us up for success. Thank you for helping to mature our organisation in design systems. We're excited to take it to the next phase.”

TAFE NSW, Head of Design

Digital transforming healthcare

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