selection of icons of different types of people

My name is Stephen McCarthy.

I build high performing and inclusive design teams.

I create and deliver effective product strategies.

I make products and services 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.

Which? updates

A brief overview on how we’ve been updating the product experience of this trusted brand

Government as a Platform (GaaP)

Creating a range of user-centred products for reuse across the public sector

My Money Health Check

Giving people useful information to help them through the cost of living crisis

GOV.UK

Building the trusted GOV.UK design language from scratch

Leading design in government

Building and maintaining a cross-government design community of 800+ people

GOV.UK Pay

Designing an accessible and reusable payments service for the public sector

International Design in Government

Creating a brand for the International Design in Government community and their series of events

Campaigns on GOV.UK

Adapting the trusted GOV.UK design language for marketing campaigns

GovDesign meetups

Creating and running a compelling series of events to build a wider GovDesign community of over 2,000 people

Sprint 18

Event branding and design for this premier public sector digital event

GovDesign assets tumblr

Using design to build a strong org culture

Services Week

Creating design assets for this annual event highlighting strong service design in a public sector setting

GOV.UK Coronavirus response

Getting the right information to people at the right time during a time of national importance

Science Gallery

Building a brand for this innovative cultural institution

Signals

Designing a new publication for Public Digital

GOV.UK comms

Building a simple GOV.UK corporate comms style

ConCon

Event branding for the annual cross-government content conference

Designers as power brokers

A short blog post outlining the responsibility we have as designers to give users understandable information

England’s Burning

Using pictograms to tell the important story of the UK riots in 2011 – published by Unit Editions

Newspaper pictograms

Defining a point in time using pictograms

GDS Academy

Building a brand for this popular government training org

Open Government Licence (OGL)

Creating an iconic logo that can be recognised at small sizes

Let's Set Sail

The Nothingness of Now – EP prints