IPAFFS trade services

Overview

At DEFRA, I was the lead designer on two critical services supporting the UK’s biosecurity and trade operations:

• IPAFFS (Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System): the UK’s official system for notifying imports of animals and high-risk food/feed. Traders use it to submit Common Health Entry Documents (CHEDs) to UK border authorities.

• BTMS (Border Trade Matching Service): an internal system that matches import declarations from HMRC’s Customs Declaration Service (CDS) with IPAFFS notifications, identifying goods that require checks and ensuring customs data aligns to reduce border delays.

What was delivered

IPAFFS

One of my first tasks was to redesign the CHED-A journey for importing live animals. After mapping the existing process and running usability testing, I worked closely with content and service designers to reduce complexity and improve clarity. Key improvements included:

• Reduced the number of screens traders had to complete

• Streamlined content to help users input accurate information

• Introduced a notification hub using the GOV.UK checklist pattern, allowing users to track progress, save work, and return later—a key improvement based on user feedback

• Added a payment journey to support online inspection fee payments

I also rebuilt the full IPAFFS prototype using Figma and the GOV.UK prototyping toolkit to replace outdated Axure wireframes. This created a single, testable view of the service, allowing end-to-end usability testing and gap analysis.

BTMS

The BTMS service was designed to replace the outdated ALVS system, which had been in use for 16 years and was no longer fit for purpose. ALVS frequently failed to match DEFRA and HMRC data, resulting in consignments being incorrectly held at the border due to system errors rather than genuine issues.

Problems included:

• Frequent matching failures between CDS and IPAFFS data

• An overwhelming, spreadsheet-style interface with too much repetitive data

• No easy way to identify whether the issue was with DEFRA, HMRC, or the trader

My design focused on:

• Reducing visual noise by displaying only essential data points, making key information easier to scan and act upon

• Introduced clear visual match statuses to show whether declarations matched, helping users quickly identify and resolve issues

• Added filtering tools to allow users to quickly locate specific consignments or data entries

• Designed a clean, intuitive UI that enabled port and DEFRA staff to confidently diagnose and resolve issues faster than with the legacy ALVS system

User testing with DEFRA, HMRC, and port staff helped catalogue existing ALVS pain points and inform the new service’s design direction.

Deliverables include

• Mapped and prototyped the entire IPAFFS journey, enabling service-wide testing and improvement

• Redesigned the CHED-A live animal notification flow, reducing steps and improving content clarity

• Introduced a progress-tracking checklist and payment flow to improve user experience and flexibility

• Designed and prototyped the BTMS internal interface, replacing ALVS and helping caseworkers identify and resolve matching issues faster

• Created interactive prototypes using Figma and GOV.UK components, tested iteratively with real users across user groups