How Georgia Transformed Its Digital Ecosystem to Serve 10 Million Constituents

Key outcomes:

• Unified design system that supports agency-level branding while maintaining the state's brand consistency.
• 75 agency websites launched across 12 rollout cycles, averaging 6–7 launches every three weeks.
• No-code page building capabilities that enable staff to customize pages without breaking the design system.
• Centralized document management with automated scheduling for regulatory announcements.
• Accessibility and design problems identified and resolved ahead of migration, with compliance built directly into the platform.
• Consistent information architecture and shared content models that prevent conflicting or outdated information across agencies.

Lullabot has been a solid partner in transforming Georgia's web presence. Not only have they excelled at technical implementation, but they have also been an effective strategic partner. I truly appreciate their partnership in making state content easy to manage across multiple websites and accessible to Georgians in a fast, secure, and effective manner.

Nikhil Deshpande, Chief digital & AI officer, Digital Services Georgia

A digital strategy to serve an audience of millions

Without a mandate to centralize, DSGa needed a new content model that met its agencies' needs while remaining flexible enough to be used in many ways. 

We interviewed dozens of state agency staff, Georgia residents, and governmental stakeholders to understand how people interact with state websites and where the existing platform fell short.

Meanwhile, extensive content inventories and audits were required to understand how real-world agency staff were using the current platform. Given the sheer scale of Georgia's ecosystem, manual lists of posts and pages weren't feasible, so we developed custom tools to:

• Automate the initial inventories across all agencies.
• Identify usage patterns.
• Spot accessibility and design problems ahead of migration.
• Compile pre-populated "audit checklists" for each agency's staff.

The insights informed a completely reimagined content model that centralizes key information while supporting consistency and common patterns, like step-by-step tutorials and legal announcements. 

Creating the Orchard Design System

We built the Orchard Design System, a component library that allows agencies to create pages from reusable design patterns while maintaining a cohesive user experience.

The system provides:

• Structured components tied to the underlying content model.
• Flexible layout tools that eliminate the need for custom code and the risk of breaking the design system.
• A system of interchangeable color schemes can help agencies maintain their own identity within a shared framework.
• A typography system that improves readability across devices without sacrificing performance.

The result is a design system that delivers consistency at scale without forcing every agency to look the same.

Publishing tools built for the people who actually use them

Content managers across Georgia's agencies are responsible for their own content—often while juggling a full set of other responsibilities. Making publishing as simple as possible was a top priority.

Lullabot extended Drupal 8's Layout Builder, adding simplified controls for content editors that were fully integrated with the Orchard design system. This made it easier for site managers to build custom pages but ensured that any one-off scenarios wouldn't break the design system.

Additionally, we built a custom asset management system on top of Drupal 8's file and media APIs. Site managers can store, distribute, and schedule the release of important state documents; automate publishing ahead of new regulations and announcements; and access thousands of existing state documents in a single centralized location to ensure consistency.

A rollout designed to maintain momentum

Launching dozens of agency sites required a rollout strategy that could scale. Using parallel development workflows and populated test environments, Lullabot launched 75 agency sites across 12 rollout cycles while continuing to build new platform features. Each cycle included standing up new sites, acquiring migration data, migration QA and bug fixes, new feature development, coordination of final migration runs, and decommissioning sites that had already launched.

The result is a durable digital platform that allows Georgia agencies to operate independently while serving residents through a unified digital ecosystem.