October 2024 - March 2025

UX Design Lead

2 Cross-Functional Teams
Each team consisted of 1 Delivery Lead, 1 Scrum Master, 2-3 Developers, 1-2 QA Testers, and 1 Business Analyst

Modernization and migration for websites and their content management systems

I supported two cross-functional UX efforts within the Department of the Interior, aligned with a broader federal push to embed human-centered design into digital services—working at the intersection of policy, platform limitations, and delivery realities. While the government had an established UX playbook, DOI’s platforms imposed strict constraints—disallowing aesthetic-only customizations and limiting technical flexibility. My role was to translate the playbook’s intentions into platform-aligned execution while unifying parallel design efforts under a shared vision.

DOI faced a familiar but difficult challenge: implementing a visionary UX strategy on platforms not built for flexibility. Development teams had to work within strict limitations—no aesthetic-only changes, limited ability to extend features, and tight scope boundaries. Meanwhile, internal design efforts were happening in silos across different projects, with no formal alignment or shared system in place.

The risk wasn’t just inefficiency—it was a credibility gap. The UX playbook laid out strong ideals, but without a grounded delivery strategy, the department risked falling into “UX theater,” where visual polish outpaces functional progress. My role was to bridge these divides—between teams, between intent and execution, and between ambition and feasibility.

As a Platform Experience Strategist and UX Designer, I led design for two DOI projects and acted as a strategic connector between design intent and platform capability. I worked closely with developers to interpret the federal UX playbook within the limits of Power Platform and Model-Driven Apps, and I advised internal design teams on how to deliver meaningful user experiences without exceeding scope or requiring unsupported enhancements.

Beyond hands-on design, I coordinated with another DOI project team to support Accenture Federal Services’ “one design team” vision—aligning approaches, sharing templates, and avoiding duplication. My wireframes were later adopted by the Platform Experience team to support future initiatives, and my mentorship helped shape downstream design decisions across projects I was not directly assigned to.

During this engagement, I also mentored a junior designer working on a parallel initiative. I met with them regularly to align presentation approaches and provide feedback on how to engage internal and external leadership effectively. I included them in key stakeholder calls, offering real-time exposure to how I navigated requirements-gathering, executive framing, and UX facilitation techniques. This helped reinforce best practices and grow design confidence across related projects.

To deliver human-centered solutions within a complex federal ecosystem, I focused on strategy, adaptability, and cross-functional alignment:

• Translated UX policy into platform-aligned design:
Mapped federal UX playbook guidance to platform-native features, balancing compliance with usability across both public-facing and internal CMS experiences.

• Advised design teams on platform constraints:
Communicated technical limitations clearly and early, helping upstream designers prioritize features that delivered functional and accessible outcomes without triggering scope issues.

• Defined microjourneys to guide platform development:
Modeled key user flows that mapped current capabilities to future-state enhancements—enabling teams to prioritize implementation based on high-value touchpoints.

• Developed scalable design assets:
Delivered reusable wireframes and platform-specific style guides that informed additional projects and helped DOI maintain visual consistency across digital services.

• Unified teams across parallel initiatives:
Collaborated with another designer on a separate DOI effort to support Accenture’s “one design team” initiative—aligning strategy and minimizing redundancy.

Project-Level Impact

• Delivered two accessible, policy-aligned experiences across constrained platforms using USWDS components and out-of-box functionality.

• Defined microjourneys to prioritize current-state fixes and guide future-state planning.

• Prevented rework by aligning developers and designers on what was realistic early in the project lifecycle.

• Earned a contract extension to deliver additional enhancements and support developers as they structured their codebase around finalized UX deliverables.

Broader Organizational Influence

• Wireframes and style guides reused across multiple DOI efforts, helping seed design governance and continuity.

• My mentorship and strategy guidance influenced design decisions on adjacent projects, helping scale UX thinking across the broader DOI portfolio.

• Platform Experience team continues to repurpose my work for future DOI initiatives—establishing foundational design standards under real constraints.

• High-fidelity and graybox wireframes for mobile and desktop

• Microjourney mapping documentation

• USWDS-compliant style guides for Power Platform and Model-Driven Apps

• UX recommendations tied to 21st Century IDEA Act compliance

• Stakeholder briefing docs to manage platform scope and delivery expectations

This project reinforced the idea that great UX isn’t about perfect freedom—it’s about strategic influence. Working within rigid platform constraints, I was able to align design intent with delivery reality, helping DOI advance its digital modernization efforts without overextending its technical boundaries.

By focusing on reusable assets, team alignment, and microjourney thinking, I left behind more than deliverables—I left behind a framework for sustainable, human-centered UX in a high-compliance, low-customization environment.

Linkedin.com/in/John-Mariano/