Designing enterprise dashboards for Australia's government-grade secure identity and access management infrastructure — where clarity is a matter of national security.
CompanyUnisys Global Corporation
RoleSenior UX Designer
DurationFeb 2018 – Jul 2021
ClientAustralian Government
Overview
Security UX at government scale
Stealth Identity is Unisys's flagship IAM platform used by the Australian government to secure sensitive data, manage user identities, and control access across distributed agencies. I led the redesign of core administrative dashboards and security workflows.
The stakes were unusually high — a confusing interface wasn't just a usability problem; it was a security risk. Errors in access policy configuration could expose classified systems or lock out critical personnel during crises.
Government / EnterpriseSecurity UXDashboard DesignIdentity & AccessAdmin Portals
Problem Statement
The challenge
The existing interface was built by engineers for engineers — optimised for completeness, not usability. Security administrators found it stressful to operate under pressure — exactly when clarity matters most.
🔐
Policy Configuration Complexity
Access policy rules involved 12+ steps with no contextual guidance, leading to frequent misconfiguration and security escalations.
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Monitoring Overload
The monitoring dashboard surfaced 200+ simultaneous event streams with no hierarchy, making anomaly detection near-impossible.
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Incident Response Friction
Critical actions during security incidents took 8–12 clicks to complete, adding dangerous latency when every second counted.
"When there's an active incident, every second counts. The old system felt like I was doing surgery in the dark — I could never be sure I'd done the right thing until it was too late."
Research & Discovery
Research within constraints
Government security projects come with strict access restrictions. All research was conducted on-site. I adapted methods to work within a closed, classified environment.
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On-Site Observation
40+ hours of in-person observation at secure facilities, watching administrators handle routine operations and simulated incident scenarios.
📝
Expert Interviews
14 administrators across three agencies at different seniority levels. Focused on mental models of identity trust hierarchies and system failure points.
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Incident Simulation
Participated in tabletop incident response exercises, observing how admins operated under simulated crisis pressure. Identified 23 friction points invisible in calm conditions.
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Journey Mapping
Detailed journey maps for 6 key administrator workflows — from daily access reviews to emergency lockdown — identifying interface divergence from mental models.
Design Process
Clarity as a security feature
01
Dashboard Information Architecture
Redesigned monitoring around a 3-tier severity hierarchy: Critical → Warning → Informational. Reduced event streams from 200+ to 12 prioritised feeds with drill-down. Added anomaly highlighting using statistical deviation detection.
02
Policy Configuration Wizard
Transformed 12-step flat form into a guided wizard with a policy simulation preview — admins could see the effect of a change before applying it. Reduced configuration errors by 71% in testing.
03
Emergency Response Shortcuts
Designed a persistent command panel for the 8 most time-critical actions — accessible from anywhere within 2 clicks. Each action included a reversibility indicator so admins knew if a decision could be undone.
04
Cargo GPS Tracking Interface
Additionally designed a logistics tracking interface for monitoring shipment movement across secure supply chains — a separate product line within the Stealth platform suite.
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Outcomes & Impact
Measurable results
71%
Reduction in policy configuration errors
2-click
Maximum path to any critical emergency action
58%
Faster incident response time in simulations
Reflection
What I learned
🛡️
Stress-test your designs
Designs that work in a calm demo fall apart under pressure. Watching admins in simulated crisis conditions revealed failure modes invisible in standard usability testing.
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Simplicity vs. auditability
Government systems need a complete audit trail. Designing for this without overwhelming users with confirmation dialogs was a constant, fascinating tension to navigate.