Researching with a wide range of users revealed the need to unify services and information from across government into a singular Content Model with 4 types:
- Topics: All the individual pieces of information that people need information about – from TV Reception, to Income tax thresholds, to Study support entitlements, and much more…
- There are currently 1500 government websites covering about 40 million webpages. The bulk of this content is Topic-style content and through analysis, we estimated that this could be reduced by about 90%. By separating into Topics (not by department), the model allows for large volumes of content to coexist, without forcing the user to navigate an unwieldy information architecture.
- To research each Topic, we used True Intent studies to intercept real users at the point they were seeking content, and followed-up with in-depth interviews. We used the insights gathered about real user needs to redesign the content, and then usability tested our prototypes to ensure we’d improved the information around the Topic. For example, we found that most users want answers to their searches surfaced directly in Google’s SERP, and for those that wanted more, would only pursue 1-2 pages before returning to Google to modify their search. Our IA therefore needed to be very broad and very shallow.
- In order to optimise content provisioning, another piece of discovery research was undertaken to understand how various agencies were understanding user needs, drafting content, approving it, and finally publishing it. This led us to begin prototyping a bespoke CMS in parallel with a Drupal/govCMS version to explore which option would best meet government needs.
- Transitions: When services & information are needed in a linear fashion to support a life event – like having a baby, or moving to Australia to study, or moving into aged care.
- Each Transition was commenced with a Discovery phase that explored the “super service”, resulting in journey maps. These maps revealed the key pain points, and a Transition prototype was built to address these issues and improve the end-to-end multichannel experience. The prototype was usability tested and iterated with the key cohorts established during Discovery.
- Corporate: All the information about each government agency – what they’re responsible for, who’s in charge, where their offices are, etc.
- Corporate content followed a consistent microsite pattern across all agencies
- News: Within each of the aforementioned Content Model classifications, some content requires updating as well as accommodating news & announcements.
- Interestingly, our research with citizens, stakeholders and journalists could not reveal any clear users for News apart from other government agencies – even journalists told us that they were either receiving early information from the agency directly, or if the information had been published directly, then there was nothing newsworthy about it.
Sam Court 