GOV.UK

GOV.UK

Integrated build prompt · Public services · Product, UX, UI, frontend, SEO/AEO, performance, and QA in one build specification.

When to use this prompt

Use this document when you are planning, designing, or building a product where access to government services and information matters. Study the public information architecture of GOV.UK ↗, but reinterpret it for your own problem. Do not reproduce its logo, copy, images, proprietary assets, or pixel-level layout.

• Reference service: GOV.UK
• Core entities: services, applications, and cases
• Primary risk: accessibility, plain language, and evidence
• Starting interface direction: service-finder portal · calm and trustworthy · medium information density · service search -> contextual guidance -> step-by-step completion -> help · #1D70B8 · GOV.UK

Public interface design analysis

• Reference basis: These are recurring visual and structural patterns from public landing screens and representative task flows. Verify the current live capture because services change over time.
• Interface archetype: service-finder portal
• Tone and manner: calm and trustworthy
• Information density: medium
• Color strategy: restrained brand accents on neutral surfaces (#1D70B8)
• Navigation model: lightweight top navigation
• Structural sequence: service search -> contextual guidance -> step-by-step completion -> help
• Reusable patterns: hero search, service card, step guide, help entry, trust metadata
• Independent application rule: Use the order and decision principles only. Do not reproduce logos, copy, imagery, icons, or proprietary screen composition.

Project inputs to replace

product_name: "[Your product name]"
target_users: "[Primary users and context]"
problem: "[Problem they need to solve]"
core_features: "[Three to five essential features]"
business_goal: "[Conversion, activation, retention, or another metric]"
technology_stack: "[For example, Next.js and Tailwind CSS]"
brand_tone: "[For example, clear, calm, and trustworthy]"

Copy-ready prompt

Act as a senior product designer, UX strategist, frontend architect, and technical SEO lead.

Create an implementation-ready product specification and, when requested, production-quality code for [Your product name]. Use GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk) only as a reference for information architecture and decision flow in a product designed for access to government services and information. Do not copy the service's brand, logo, wording, images, protected assets, or exact screen composition.

Project context:
- Target users: [Primary users and context]
- Problem: [Problem they need to solve]
- Core features: [Three to five essential features]
- Business goal: [Conversion, activation, retention, or another metric]
- Technology stack: [Framework, styling, data, and hosting]
- Brand tone: [Voice and visual character]

Required design and implementation criteria:
1. Make the relationships and states of services, applications, and cases understandable at a glance.
2. Provide prevention, explanation, and recovery paths for accessibility, plain language, and evidence.
3. Specify loading, empty, error, success, disabled, permission-denied, and partial-data states.
4. Preserve content priority and navigation at 360px, 768px, and 1280px.
5. Use semantic HTML, logical keyboard order, visible focus, 44px touch targets, and WCAG AA contrast.
6. Define page structure, components, data, actions, microcopy, edge cases, and measurable acceptance criteria.
7. Give every indexable page a unique title, meta description, canonical URL, heading hierarchy, and crawlable internal links.
8. Answer important user questions directly in visible content. Keep WebSite, WebPage, BreadcrumbList, and CreativeWork structured data consistent with that content.
9. Set performance budgets for the main image, fonts, JavaScript, Core Web Vitals, and slow-network behavior.
10. Return a testable result rather than general design advice.

Output in this order:
- Goals, assumptions, and success metrics
- User flow and information architecture
- Screen and component specification
- Data model, states, and error recovery
- Responsive and accessibility rules
- SEO, AEO, and structured-data plan
- Implementation plan or code
- Verifiable completion checklist

Starting design tokens

:root {
  --color-primary: #1D70B8;
  --color-ink: #17201D;
  --color-canvas: #F6F8F7;
  --color-surface: #FFFFFF;
  --color-tint: #1D70B822;
  --color-danger: #DC2626;
  --radius-card: 8px;
  --space-1: 4px; --space-2: 8px; --space-3: 12px;
  --space-4: 16px; --space-6: 24px; --space-8: 32px;
}

These tokens are a starting point, not a request to clone GOV.UK. Validate contrast, hierarchy, density, and brand distinctiveness for your own users.

Expected deliverables

• Product requirements tied to user outcomes and measurable success criteria
• Information architecture and the critical end-to-end flow
• Component contracts covering data, states, actions, and accessibility
• Mobile, tablet, and desktop adaptation rules
• SEO/AEO content model, structured data, and internal-link plan
• Performance budgets, analytics events, tests, and release acceptance criteria

Follow-up prompts

1. "Take the most important flow and define normal, loading, empty, partial-data, validation-error, server-error, permission-denied, and success states with one consistent data model."
2. "Convert the specification into semantic, reusable components with realistic English content at 360px, 768px, and 1280px. Include keyboard and screen-reader behavior."
3. "Audit the result for accessibility, plain language, and evidence. Rank failures by severity and give observable evidence, a fix, a verification method, and a completion condition."
4. "Remove anything that resembles GOV.UK's brand or proprietary layout while preserving only the useful information-architecture principle."
5. "Split the result into engineering tickets with purpose, data requirements, component API, edge cases, accessibility criteria, tests, and dependencies."

Validation checklist

• ☐ GOV.UK is used only as an information-architecture reference.
• ☐ Project-specific users, problems, features, and metrics replace every placeholder.
• ☐ The priority and state changes of services, applications, and cases are explicit.
• ☐ Trust and recovery paths address accessibility, plain language, and evidence.
• ☐ Empty, delayed, partial, failed, and permission-restricted states are covered.
• ☐ Keyboard, screen reader, 200% zoom, reduced motion, and contrast can be tested.
• ☐ The final design has its own product language and visual identity.