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ASIC

Design systems, process refreshes and building a data-led, design central regulator

Overview

Commonly confused with a sports shoe company, The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is Australia's federal financial and securities regulator.

 

Fulfilling an essential role in maintaining confidence in the Australian economy by administering the dispensation of the Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) to vetted businesses and individuals as a condition for participation in the countries financial sector; ranging from giving financial advice to investors, maintaining and creating markets, trading commoddities, insurance products and superannuation funds.

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ASIC also maintains a host of public and internal registers of AFS Licence holders and their authorised representatives, as well as serving as the keeper of Australia's business registry, frequently interacted with via the oft-cited "ABN" number.

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I joined the team at ASIC during a transformational time of their growth as the first directly engaged UX Design hire, and the start of the build-up of ASICs in-house UX capabilities as part of the wide reaching Registry Connect project, building on the work of previously rotating 3rd party agency contractors.

My ROLE

My role at ASIC came with a specific focus, yet was highly varied. As part of the beginnings of the Human Centred Design (HCD) team, myself and my colleagues were part of the formation of ASICs early design culture. Duties across my time there included:

UX

  • Stakeholder management and presentations

  • Co-design workshops with stakeholders and developers

  • User interviews, workshops and feedback synthesis for insights and oportunities

  • Showcase presentations to teams and stakeholders covering findings and design updates

UI

  • Wireframing and Prototyping of all visual assets

  • Developer liason and support

  • Design review

  • Design system implementation

  • Accessibility review feedback implementation

ASIC Design system

ASICs design system was a new creation on my joining, and its stewardship was entrusted to me as my first resposibility.

  • Early stewardship of the ASIC design system V0.1, as handed over by vendor partners

  • Creating resuable, scalable components and variants according to business need and technology gaps, both in new and legacy platforms.

  • Running "Design Guild" sessions both alone and in collaboration with the wider team, soliciting feedback on components and patterns to be included in the design system in in accordance with developer, stakeholder and HCD team requirements

  • Test and Learn: facilitating the first implementation of ASIC-DS into in-fight delivery projects, facilitating developer questions and frequent front end design review and reccomednation

  • Addressing bugs and improving component behavior.

  • Gathering feedback and incorporating new assets into the design system as needs emerged.

  • Enhancing existing components based on requirements.

  • Advocating best practices for design system structure and usage to management, colleagues, and executives.

  • Maintaining awareness of WCAG 2.2 and accessible design principles for all projects under my involvement

Transaction development

During my time at ASIC, I focused on both internal and external public transactions and initiatives across mobile and web. Major business areas included

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  • Regulatory Portal (Regportal): ASICs window for regulated entities to fulfil their obligations as part of the conditions of holding an AFS Licence

  • Corporate website: asic.gov.au is the public facing webpage of the department, and initiatives frequently included it as a touchpoint

  • Internal systems: ASIC runs on a combination of primarily MS Dynamics 365 and Outsystems. Legacy technologies such as Lotus Notes and iApply are also included. Projects frequently involved the uplift of or feature development for these platforms.

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My main responsibilities in a team environment covered:

  • Ownership of the Figma design workspace

    • ​ Producing wireframes and prototypes

  • Stakeholder management

    • Co-design and discovery workshops​

    • Soliciting feedback from both users and subject matter experts

    • Keeping project managers and owners informed of the current state of HCD at ASIC, and socialising the latest design initiatives from the team and understanding potential impacts to project timelines

    • Showcase presentations and demonstrating and understanding of the balance between business, user and legal requirements to deliver the best outcome

  • UX research activities

    • Conducting my own external user review sessions with regulated entities and internal users​

    • supporting other HCD team members in their efforts as part of their own projects

    • Synthesising findings and validating (or disproving) assumptions forwarded by both myself and the business

    • Identifying opportunities for service improvements and iterating wireframes accordingly.

    • Advocating for the customer experience

  • Developer support

    • Regular review sessions of front end work, managed via Azure Devops

    • Liason between developers and the wider HCD team, answering questions on implementation and intent of the ASIC design language

    • Collaborating when new components or patterns are required, and socialising those proposals with the HCD team and Design Guild process.

    • Providing post-release support and general ad-hoc design assistance

© 2026 by Daniel Goltsman.

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