Digital Wallet

Overview

The Garda Verifier was designed to help An Garda Síochána securely verify digital credentials during roadside interactions, creating a faster, more intuitive experience while supporting Ireland's wider Digital Wallet initiative.

Industry

Public Sector

Role

Senior Product Designer

Duration

2024–2025

Responsibilities

Interactive Prototyping

The Opportunity

Ireland's Digital Wallet enables citizens to securely store and present government-issued credentials, including driving licences, passports and age cards. The Garda Verifier forms part of this ecosystem, supporting secure identity verification during roadside interactions.

The Challenge

Design a trusted identity verification experience that enables Gardaí to verify digital credentials quickly, securely and accessibly during roadside interactions.

The Solution

Through research, co-design workshops and iterative prototyping, I redesigned the verification journey to reduce friction during roadside checks while remaining consistent with the wider Digital Wallet ecosystem.

Research

Understanding a high-pressure interaction.

Before exploring solutions, I worked with Gardaí, stakeholders and members of the public to understand how digital identity could fit into roadside interactions. The goal was to identify practical challenges, build trust in the concept and ensure the experience would work in real-world conditions.

User Interviews

I helped prepare interview questions and discussion prompts for a group exercise with An Garda Síochána and drivers/passengers The goal was to understand what each side needed from the checkpoint interaction.

View Interview Research

Co-design Workshops

Collaborative workshops mapped current journeys, identified pain points and explored opportunities to improve trust, speed and usability across verification scenarios.
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Open Workshop Outputs

Research Synthesis

Affinity mapping brought together interview findings and workshop outputs, helping prioritise themes and define the core design opportunities.
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View Research Synthesis

Journey Mapping

Understanding the Verification Journey

Mapping the existing and proposed journeys highlighted changes to the verification process before moving into detailed design. Comparing the current and future experiences helped align stakeholders around a shared vision before moving into detailed design.

Journey Comparison

A comparison of the current and future verification journeys that showed how the experience evolved.

View Camparison

Service Blueprint

A detailed service flow illustrating user actions, system behaviour and verification outcomes across the end-to-end journey.

Visualising the Journey

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Wireframes

Structuring the Experience

Following research, journey mapping and service blueprinting, I translated the chosen interaction model into low-fidelity wireframes. These wireframes focused on validating layout, navigation and information hierarchy before progressing to high-fidelity designs.

View wireframes

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Design

Rather than creating a new design system, I worked within the existing OGCIO framework, adapting established components and interaction patterns to support secure digital identity verification. Every screen was designed to remain consistent with the wider Digital Wallet ecosystem while meeting the unique needs of the verifier journey.

Design System Adaptation

Explore how existing OGCIO components were adapted for secure identity verification.

Open Figma

Accessibility

Explore the accessibility decisions that improved clarity, confidence and usability.

View Accessibility

Digital wallet Design

Explore the completed verifier interface and end-to-end identity verification journey.

View Designs

Prototype

Interactive prototypes were used to review navigation, interactions and complete user journeys before development. They provided stakeholders with a realistic representation of the experience and informed the final refinements.

Verification Journey

a short walkthrough explaining the prototype, key interactions and the Interaction decisions behind them.

Walkthrough

Interactive Prototypes

Explore the complete verification journey through two connected prototypes, demonstrating both the citizen and verifier experience.

View Prototypes

See Blueface Site

Outcome & Reflection

The Garda Verifier explored how digital identity could work in one of the most demanding service interactions. By grounding the work in research and close collaboration with stakeholders, the experience became simpler, faster and more intuitive while remaining consistent with the wider Digital Wallet ecosystem.

The project reinforced the importance of designing for trust, particularly in moments where people may feel under pressure. It also demonstrated how an established design system can be thoughtfully adapted to support specialised user needs without sacrificing consistency or accessibility.

Outcome

Simplified the verification journey.

Reduced unnecessary steps and cognitive load.

Improved consistency with the wider Digital Wallet ecosystem.

Designed for trust, accessibility and real-world use.

Reflection

This project reminded me that great government services aren't just about technology, they're about helping people feel confident in moments that can often be stressful.

The most valuable design decisions were often the simplest ones: reducing friction, improving clarity and working closely with the people who would ultimately use the service