Two years on assignment at Docaposte BPO, working on Cobalt, the in-house design system, and on user journeys for BNP Paribas, jedeclare.com, service-public.fr, ANTS and Union Retraite.
- 150+Components in Cobalt
- 75%Average RGAA compliance, starting from almost nothing
- 3 daysTo the first hi-fi screens of a new product
Cobalt
Different products on one foundation.
Docaposte BPO runs online services for banks and public administrations. Each client comes with its own brand, its legal constraints and, in the public sector, the obligation to comply with RGAA, the French accessibility standard.
Over those two years, I ran all these products on Cobalt, the in-house design system, while letting each one keep its personality.
Trade-off
One design system per brand, or one with themes?
Five products, five brands, and in the public sector, the obligation to comply with RGAA.
Brands lost a bit of freedom: some colors, too light to pass contrast checks, stayed decorative. In return, a focus bug fixed in Cobalt was fixed across every product at once. And with more than 150 ready-made components, the first hi-fi screens of a new product were out in three days.
Accessibility
Accessibility solved in the component.
Contrast, keyboard focus, reading order, screen reader labels: all of it is solved once in the component, and every screen inherits it.
On BNP Paribas’s KYC flow, most of the work was on errors: stating the format before input, and writing messages that actually help people fix things.
On public-service software, RGAA compliance started from almost nothing. Building on components that were already accessible, we reached 75% compliance on average.
Squads
Legal in the loop.
I worked with POs, developers, business experts, and often legal.
Depending on the topic, we started with a scoping workshop or user testing, before mockups and specs.
On an administrative procedure, one wrong word can cost a lot: legal reviewed every journey with us.
Proud to have worked with Guillaume at Docaposte. He’s the kind of person you rarely meet: rock-solid technically, but above all able to pass on what he knows with simple, clear teaching and no ego. An impressively versatile profile: UX/UI, web development, product thinking, fast problem-solving. He understands topics in depth and can go from vision to execution without getting lost. Beyond the skills, what I remember most is the person.
Thibaut DalmassoUX/UI Designer · Docaposte