Configure the GOV.UK Design System (GDS) Service Portal

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated June 1, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configure the GOV.UK Design System (GDS) Service Portal

    The GOV.UK Design System (GDS) Service Portal is a ServiceNow portal designed to provide a user experience that aligns with the UK government’s design standards. It includes a library of configurable widgets and pages—such as catalog, case list, case details, knowledge articles, and record producers—that follow GOV.UK design patterns. The portal is built using the GOV.UK Developer Toolkit, which offers a base system portal and a widget library for customization.

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    The portal record defines essential elements like the URL extension (default is /ukgds), knowledge base, catalog, homepage, header menu, and branding. Customers can choose to use the provided base system portal or add GDS-aligned widgets and pages to existing portals.

    Key Features

    • Portal Record Configuration: Customize the portal’s URL structure, knowledge base, catalog, record producers, homepage, header menu, and branding to suit agency needs.
    • Branding and Theme Customization: Use the Branding Editor for real-time updates on styles and themes. The default theme conforms to UK government standards on branding, accessibility, responsive design, color palettes, typography, and component styling.
    • Pages and Widgets: Utilize a library of pre-configured pages and widgets adhering to GOV.UK guidelines. Pages define the user experience, while widgets provide the content. Both can be customized or used as templates for new configurations.
    • Search Configuration: Create search sources to enable searching across one or multiple tables or external sites within the portal. AI Search capabilities can be enabled to enhance query intelligence and improve user results.
    • Access Management: Control user access by making pages or widgets public or restricted. Support for login, single sign-on (SSO), and advanced user criteria allows precise role-based security. By default, most content requires authentication except login and registration pages.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Quickly deploy a Service Portal that meets UK government design and accessibility standards out-of-the-box.
    • Easily brand and theme the portal to match agency identity while maintaining compliance with GOV.UK guidelines.
    • Leverage a comprehensive library of configurable widgets and pages to accelerate portal configuration and user experience design.
    • Enable intelligent search features to help constituents find relevant information efficiently.
    • Implement robust and flexible access controls to secure portal content according to user roles and authentication needs.

    Customize and modify the GOV.UK Design System Service Portal to meet your needs.

    The GOV.UK Design System Service Portal (/ukgds) is a Service Portal with a library of configurable widgets and pages (catalog, case list, case details, knowledge articles, and record producer​) that resemble the GOV.UK design system, and follow the patterns that GOV.UK dictates. The GOV.UK Design System Service Portal comes default with the GOV.UK Developer Toolkit.​

    A portal is the engine that contains all references to the content that constituents will see in their end-user experience. The portal record defines the URL extension for a site, the portal's knowledge base, its catalog, and its homepage. The portal record can also be used to define the header menu and portal branding. With the GOV.UK Developer Toolkit, you can use the base system GOV.UK Design System Service Portal that is provided for you, or you may add any number of GDS-adherant portal widgets and pages provided with the Developer Toolkit to an existing portal. For a list of widgets included in the GOV.UK Developer Toolkit widget library, see GDS Service Portal Widget Library.

    After installation of the GOV.UK Developer Toolkit, you can customize the default GOV.UK Design System Service Portal to add or change widgets, themes, and branding, and can configure page and widget access by role.

    Configuration Overview

    This workflow provides a high-level overview for configuring the GDS Service Portal, after you have installed the GOV.UK Developer Toolkit.

    1. Configure the base-system GDS Service Portal record.

      A base system GOV.UK Design System Service Portal is provided with the GOV.UK Developer Toolkit that can be modified using widgets and pages to fit your needs. The portal record defines the URL extension for an agency's portal site (which for the GDS Service Portal is, by default, /ukgds), and things like the knowledge base, catalog, record producers, and homepage. You can also use the portal record to define the header menu and the portal branding.

    2. Configure the portal branding and theme.

      With the Branding Editor, you can configure the styles and theme of the GOV.UK Design System Service Portal with real-time updates, allowing you to see how your portal appears to users. By default, the GDS Service Portal theme adheres to standards set forth by the UK government for branding, accessibility, and responsive design. The default portal theme supplies standardized color palettes, typography, and styling for GDS Service Portal components, and styled headers, footers, search widgets, breadcrumbs, and knowledge pages, aligned with Gov.UK standards.

    3. Configure portal pages and widgets.

      Pages are the centerpiece of the end-user portal experience. By default, the GOV.UK Developer Toolkit provides a library of already-configured portal pages that contain the necessary components that are set forth by GOV.UK Design System guidelines, and can be customized to fit your needs. You can also use any existing base system pages as examples when creating new pages from scratch.

      Widgets are what define the content of your pages. By default, the GOV.UK Developer Toolkit provides a library of already-configured widgets that adhere to GOV.UK Design System guidelines, display relevant information, and can be customized to display different variations of information. You can use the base system widgets provided with the GOV.UK Developer Toolkit to get started configuring portal pages.

    4. Configure search in the portal.

      Search data displays within a widget on the search page. To make data searchable from a portal, create a search source that fetches data from a single table within your instance, from multiple tables, or from an external site. Enable AI Search to allow constituents to take advantage of intelligent query features and find the answers they need.

    5. Manage access to the portal.

      Manage who can access the GDS Service Portal by making pages or widgets public, configuring login and single sign-on (SSO), or limiting page access by role. You can also use advanced user criteria for access to pages, widgets, and more. Configure page/widget security by role to either set up pages or widgets to be public (no authentication required), or to filter them by user role. By default, all pages and widgets in the GDS Service Portal, except the login and registration pages (and their respective widgets), require authentication to be accessed.