My name is Stephen McCarthy
I build high performing design teams and deliver products that are understandable, useful and beautiful.
I’m currently Head of Product Design and User Research for Which?. Before that I was Head of Design for GOV.UK and the UK’s Government Digital Service.
Creating a more attractive, engaging and performant user experience
Which? brand refresh
Building your trusted home for everyday advice
Increasing year on year engagement by focusing on user needs and fixing the basics
Creating a range of user-centred products for reuse across the public sector
Building the trusted GOV.UK design language from scratch
Building and maintaining a cross-government design community of 800+ people
Designing an accessible and reusable payments service for the public sector
GOV.UK Coronavirus response
Getting the right information to people at the right time during a time of national importance
Brexit checker
Giving individuals, families and businesses personalised information so they can make needed adjustments during a time of great uncertainty
Creating a brand for the International Design in Government community and their series of events
Creating and running a compelling series of events to build a wider GovDesign community of over 2,000 people
Building a brand for this innovative cultural institution
Designing a new publication for Public Digital
Newspaper pictograms
Defining a point in time using pictograms
GDS Academy
Building a brand for this popular government training org
GOV.UK comms
Building a simple GOV.UK corporate comms style
ConCon
Event branding for the annual cross-government content conference
England’s Burning
Using pictograms to tell the important story of the UK riots in 2011 – published by Unit Editions
Event branding and design for this premier public sector digital event
Using design to build a strong org culture
Open Government Licence (OGL)
Creating an iconic logo that can be recognised at small sizes