Case study · Government · Public portal · Independent consultancy

Umucyo V2: the public face of national e-procurement

Redesigning the public portal where suppliers and citizens find tenders, check deadlines and costs, read documents, follow plans and awards, and see who is barred from bidding.

Product: Umucyo e-procurement system, Rwanda
My role: UI/UX Consultant (independent engagement)
Users: Suppliers and contractors, procuring entities, the public
Platform: Responsive web, Figma

Umucyo V2 landing page — Landing page: one search for tenders, bids and awards. Scroll to see the full page.

Context

Umucyo is Rwanda's national e-procurement system. Its public side has a simple job with serious consequences: if a supplier misses a deadline, misreads a bid security amount or cannot find a document, a qualified bidder drops out. V2 is a redesign of that public experience, delivered as a consultant.

The problem

Tender information is dense and time-critical. Suppliers must scan many tenders quickly, then find the few facts that decide whether they can bid: closing date, method, bid security, tender fee, site visit and opening date. Transparency pages (plans, awards, blacklist) must be easy to search and trustworthy. The earlier prototype also had gaps against the business requirements.

Design question: how do we get a supplier from “what is open?” to “can I bid, and by when?” in the fewest steps, while meeting the requirements document?

Process

1. Audit against requirementsCompared the existing prototype with the business requirements and the design file to find gaps before redesigning.

2. Information architectureOrganised the public portal into Plans, Tenders, Contracts, Docs, Blacklist and Market Place, with a shared navigation and breadcrumbs.

3. High-fidelity designDesigned each page from shared components: navbar, badges, buttons, tables, tabs, cards and pagination.

4. Working prototypesBuilt HTML prototypes with animation and a routed tender-browsing flow to test the experience beyond static frames.

The solution

Scannable tender cards. Reference, “Closing soon” status and category on one line; entity and method next; deadline and call to action grouped on the right.
Urgency you can read. Relative time (“Closes in 3 days”) plus the exact date, and a live countdown on the tender page.
Filters that match how suppliers search. Category and status with counts, active filter pills, procuring entity and method, and pagination.
Decision facts in one place. Category, method, bid security, tender fee, site visit and opening date in a fixed side panel.
Documents you can trust. File type and size visible before download; the documents area covers PDF, image, audio and video, as the requirements ask.
Authentication for bid submission. A short, guided step: company, TIN, then an OTP to the registered phone.

Advertised tenders page with filters — Advertised tenders: search, grouped filters, active filter pills and tender cards.

Tender details page with countdown — Tender details: status, key facts, tabs and a side panel with the countdown and costs.

Documentation library — Docs: guides and tutorials by category and audience, with download or watch actions.

Authenticate to submit bid — Authenticate to submit a bid: company, TIN and OTP verification.

Transparency pages

Plans, awards and the blacklist share one table pattern, so a citizen who learns one page can read the others: clear columns, search, filters, status chips and pagination.

Published procurement plans by entity, fiscal year, budget and status.

Awarded contracts with awardee, value, date and contract period.

Blacklisted suppliers register — Public register of suppliers barred from procurement, with reason, dates and status.

Contact page with map — Contact: form, contact details and map.

Public asset disposal

I also designed the landing page for public asset disposal: browse verified listings, filter by category, closing date and price, and see active auctions with clear bid status.

Disposal landing page with active vehicle auctions — Disposal landing page: “Government assets, sold openly and fairly”.

Outcome and what I learned

The result is a consistent set of public-portal screens mapped to the requirements, with one component system across tenders, plans, awards, documents and disposal. In procurement, clarity about time and money is the product, so every pattern was chosen to make a deadline or a cost impossible to miss.

Next step I would take: test the tender-to-bid journey with real suppliers, including on low-bandwidth mobile connections.

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