Adapting to policy changes

Government policies evolve to meet new challenges and technologies. When the EU adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016, replacing the 1995 Data Protection Directive, teams across government services had to rethink how they handle user information. Changes in areas like data privacy, accessibility, or service delivery require design teams to adapt while still maintaining service quality.

Design teams can prepare for policy changes by:

• Following policy discussions in government working groups
• Building flexible design systems that adapt to new requirements
• Creating modular components that are easier to update
• Maintaining clear documentation of policy-driven design decisions

Being proactive helps reduce rework. For instance, designing forms to separate required and optional fields makes it easier to adapt when data collection policies change. Similarly, building accessibility features into base components helps meet new requirements faster.