Government
Building better digital services for all Australians.
We partner with government agencies to design and build secure, accessible platforms and services that stand the test of time. Our deep experience in public-sector delivery frameworks, and ability to adapt to your ways of working make us a safe bet for your next strategic initiative.
How we help
We work with your team to design, build, and operate digital services that are stable, compliant, and built to last. Our methods are informed by the Australian Government Digital Experience Policy and shaped by over a decade of government delivery experience.
We help you understand the needs of your users and design solutions that make complex processes simple, usable, and effective.
We build and maintain design systems that unify experience across programs and services, scaling accessibility and consistency through shared patterns and governance.
We can help you align with the Digital Service Standard and build WCAG-compliant services by embedding accessibility best practice into your ways of working.
Platform Engineering
From APIs and micro-frontends to data platforms and ingestion pipelines, we design architectures that integrate legacy systems and enable ongoing improvement as requirements change.
Secure Cloud & Infrastructure
We design and operate resilient cloud platforms in Australian regions, aligned with Australian Signals Directorate guidance, with data sovereignty and security built in.
Content Architecture
We can help you implement structured content architectures and headless CMS platforms that support workflow governance, interoperability, and scalable publishing across your organisation.
Applied AI
We help agencies explore how AI can improve service delivery, automate internal workflows, and support decision-making — built on secure, sovereign infrastructure with transparent governance and responsible AI guardrails from the start.
Team Enablement & Capability Building
We help teams build confidence, capability, and momentum through hands-on collaboration. By improving day-to-day delivery practices, we leave your organisation better equipped to deliver independently over time.
Extending and improving a legacy system is always a challenge, and Thinkmill showed time and time again they were up to it. Their ability to work within constraints and “cut the cloth to fit” was critical to our success.
Darren Molineux
Assistant Director, FTA Trade Facilitation Section, Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade
Why we’re a good fit
Australian-based delivery and support: All work is delivered by local teams, ensuring data sovereignty, aligned time zones, and baseline+ security clearance where required.
Experience that meets government standards: We’ve delivered large-scale systems for federal and state agencies, meeting strict accessibility and security requirements.
Design and engineering, side by side: We work across disciplines, in parallel, to deliver work more efficiently and with greater impact.
Aligned with your ways of working: We integrate with your existing teams – and the governance and delivery practices they rely on – to strengthen what’s working and support better processes over time.
Prepared for what’s next: The platforms and content architectures we build can be designed to support emerging capabilities – including AI – so your investment today doesn’t become a constraint tomorrow.
Shipped!
Our work in Government and nonprofit sectors
We helped DAFF build an accessible and themeable open source React Design System
We co-led the design and development of the open-source Agriculture Design System (AgDS) for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Now referenced in the Australian Government Architecture as supporting the Digital Service Standard, AgDS establishes a strong accessibility baseline, with independent auditors noting our React accessibility work as exemplary.
"The Department of Agriculture’s design system site presents very minor accessibility barriers for users with disability and is a credit to the Department of Agriculture’s time and effort towards making the application accessible."
Intopia
Accessibility & WCAG compliance consultants
We helped DFAT modernise its Free Trade Agreement Portal with a focus on security, reliability and performance
Working closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, we transformed a manual, flat-file publishing system into a secure, scalable platform powered by a modern CMS and React front end. Our four-year SLA partnership maintained >99.99% uptime, ensuring reliability and confidence at every release.
We helped ASIC build a design system foundation to increase UX consistency and developer efficiency.
We partnered with ASIC to redesign their Registry Services website with a focus on usability and scalability.
We helped AusCycling unify their event and content ops with a multi-site CMS.
Australian Digital Health Agency
In collaboration with Meld Studios, we supported the ADHA’s team in improving the My Health Record experience for Australians.
ABC
We provided architectural support to Australia’s most trusted news source during their record-breaking internet coverage of the 2022 federal election.
We built Rugby a publishing system & content API with 3rd party data integrations for their multi-brand & multi-channel operational needs.
Australian Non-Profit
We built a conversational AI assistant for an Australian non-profit, giving their community a smarter way to navigate a growing body of sector knowledge.
Thinkmill have played a crucial role in our transformation of Rugby Australia’s website network and development practices. The team are exceptional at what they do, and generous with their time and expertise.
Kevin Stafford
CTO, Rugby Australia
Learn more about our approach
Deep dive into more articles and videos related to Government and nonprofit work.
article
Accessibility at Thinkmill
How we approach the multi-faceted world of accessible design, and how improvements made for one user group can benefit all of us.
·4 min readscreencast
Project walkthrough: Agriculture Design System
Watch Jordan Overbye and Nathan Simpson outline the origins of our recent collaboration with the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry to implement a modern and accessible React Design System.
talk
Accessibility in Design Systems
Jordan Overbye spoke at React Sydney about our collaboration with the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry to implement AgDS – a modern and accessible React Design System. AgDS achieved AA-level compliance against WCAG 2.1 and is noted as an exemplary implementation of an accessible React-based design system by independent accessibility consultants, Intopia.
article
Inclusive user testing with browser-based prototypes
Last year, we partnered with the Queensland Government and Meld Studios to design a website that helps people find tools and information to improve their digital literacy. This was a great chance to apply our inclusive design skills and build a site that’s usable and accessible to as many people as possible.
·4 min readarticle
The $64,000 question to create more accessible and inclusive experiences
Empathising with your blind users to create better experiences for all.
·8 min readtalk
How to establish multi-disciplinary teams to effectively design and build products
Lauren recently co-presented with Paul Merrell from Meld Studios at UX Australia 2022 about how Thinkmill & Meld established a multi-disciplinary team to effectively design and build a product.
Let us bring your ideas to life