Reduced vendor friction, Improved consistency, handoff time, accessibility score, and time to ship a product. 

When I joined the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) in 2021, the digital ecosystem had grown rapidly without a shared design foundation. Over 150 digital services across web and mobile, built by six different development vendors, resulted in a fragmented user experience. Each team maintained its own components, patterns, and interpretations of UI standards.

While the government planned to launch its own design system for all entities, it wasn't yet available. This gap presented an opportunity. My team and I became the first in the region to introduce a design system for a government entity, three years before the official government design system launched in 2024.

This case study documents my three year journey introducing and maturing MOHAP's centralized design system, transforming delivery efficiency, experience quality, and governance across all digital products.

Although all services belonged to the same government entity, they looked and behaved differently. Buttons, colors, icons, forms, typography, spacing, and interaction patterns varied across services, eroding trust and usability.

Simple UI decisions required approvals across multiple stakeholders. Component discussions were subjective, undocumented, and time-consuming, slowing down delivery.

The above table shows is a glimpse of inconsistencies in shipped products, across multiple vendors.

Strategy: Designing a System, Not Screens

Rather than fixing services one by one, the focus shifted to systemic change.

Each component followed a structured lifecycle of 

The design system was rolled out to all 6 development vendors

, reviewing vendor outputs against documented standards.

MOHAP was among the first government entities in the region

 to adopt a structured design system approach. In the third year, the UAE’s TDRA launched a federal design system, reinforcing the importance of design systems.

By introducing a design system at MOHAP, we moved from fragmented, vendor-driven outputs to a cohesive, scalable, and accessible digital ecosystem. The system reduced friction, improved quality, and created a shared language across teams, delivering measurable value over time.

This wasn’t a one time project. It was a three year evolution, proving that design systems are long term investments with compounding returns.

Implementing Design System at Ministry of Health and Prevention

Tribal Experience is a design consultancy based in Dubai, specializing in digital transformation, UX Research and Design. A trusted partner to the UAE’s most prominent government entities and private sector leaders, Tribal assembles elite teams of specialists to solve complex organizational challenges.

I am a hands on Product Designer and I've also mentored 3 design resources at Tribal. Over the past 8 years, I have served as a cornerstone for Tribal’s key accounts, adapting my role to meet the specific demands of each contract.

KHDA is a government body responsible for the growth and quality of private education in Dubai. It regulates and inspects schools, universities, and early childhood centers to ensure they meet high standards of safety, teaching, and student wellbeing.

MOHAP is a federal authority responsible for implementing healthcare policies and regulating the medical sector across the UAE. It also manages the licensing of healthcare professionals, facilities, pharmaceuticals, and a residents medical record through their digital services.

TDRA is a regulatory body that leads and enables the digital transformation of the federal government entities in the UAE. It also regulates the telecommunications sector, and the electronic products being sold in the UAE.

Robosoft Technologies is a digital product and software development company. The company offers services across digital consulting, UX/UI design, engineering, and analytics, working with global brands across industries like finance, media, retail, and healthcare.

Helping leaders and educators see a policy in action by translating a written framework into visuals they can explore and understand in real time

Transform a government initiative named Learner's Passport - a product that does not yet exist - into a tangible visual experience for a stakeholder launch event in under one week, followed by a presentation to a larger audience on the day of the event.

Enabled leadership, educators, and stakeholders to visualize, engage with, and believe in the initiative’s potential.

Leveraged AI assisted workflows to reduce design time by approximately 70%, moving from zero concepts to event ready assets in 3 days.

While this was a collaborative initiative:

Learners Passport is a long term digital initiative by Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) aimed at creating a unified educational profile for every learner in Dubai - starting from birth and evolving throughout their academic and vocational journey.

While the initiative was brilliant on paper, it was only on paper. There were no designs, no visuals, and no tangible roadmap. With a major launch event just days away, we risked presenting dry text to an audience of teachers and public officials who needed to feel the emotional weight of the project.

While the broader team handled the event logistics and high level strategy, my specific mandate was to own the visual translation of the concept. I had just joined KHDA and this was my second week. I needed to prove my value immediately by turning abstract requirements into a "Wow" factor that would sell the vision. 

The Challenge: Designing What Did Not Exist Yet

The scope of the Learner's Passport was immense. It needed to:

The required information existed only as a policy intent, a documentation, and a long term vision. There were no designs, no flows, no product, yet it needed to be presented publicly to:

Below is a journey map (Birth → Education → Employment) where Education was my area of focus

I chose not to run away from AI, but to use it as a force multiplier. Instead of staring at a blank canvas, I utilized Figma AI to aggressively speed up the design process.

I fed the core requirements into Figma AI to generate the first draft of wireframes. This wasn't about getting the final design right instantly; it was about getting something testable in front of the client immediately.

Generated dashboard layouts and autolayout structures using AI.

Approval on the direction within 24 hours. The AI handled the heavy lifting of structure, allowing me to focus on UX logic.

For the event, we needed to engage the audience. We couldn't just show slides; we needed them to build the future with us.

I designed "Origami Placeholders" and physical wireframes for dashboards.

Participants (teachers, parents and students) used these physical assets to write what they felt, heard, and wanted to see on the dashboard. They filled in empty wireframes I prepared, effectively crowd sourcing the UX requirements.

Once the direction was validated, I used Figma AI again to polish the UI for the final presentation.

Since the AI provided autolayout frames, applying the KHDA branding was seamless.

I used AI image generation to create icons for the dashboard to give the interface a futuristic, premium feel suitable for a government launch.

The final output was a comprehensive visual narrative presented by the participants themselves in the auditorium. 

Child's progress and recommendations👇🏾

This project reinforced something important for me: AI doesn’t replace designers. It removes friction so designers can lead.

Learners Passport wasn’t about shipping screens. It was about shaping belief - fast, responsibly, and collaboratively.

Learner's Passport: Policy to Product Vision, Designed with AI

Natash is not only an exceptional designer but also a dedicated learner and an even better human being. He consistently stays up to date with the latest developments in the industry and makes it a point to share that knowledge with the team at every opportunity. He creates a learning environment that’s open, supportive, and completely pressure-free. As a designer, Natash earns my full recommendation but as a leader, he deserves it even more.

 Achyuth Baiju

Natash is an insightful and talented UX/UI Designer. Give him some creative freedom and the results will surprise you. He will deliver the product on time. I recommend Natash highly and It was a great pleasure to work with him.

Implementing Design System at Ministry of Health and Prevention

Natash Aston Cutinha