The Resources Division of the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources wanted their redeveloped Earth Resources website to be the go-to government online resource for key industry, community and geoscience stakeholders, as well as the capacity for providing seamless digital services into the future.

Our starting point was to understand the audience and identify their needs.

To do this, we conducted a series of user experience co-design activities, including workshops and one-on-one interviews with strategic internal and external stakeholders; an online survey to collect feedback from a broader group of users; an online card sorting activity; and current site analysis, including an expert review and benchmarking.

This research revealed a site that was difficult to use: important information was often hidden under multiple layers; content was often dense, duplicated and inaccurate; a lack of clear processes made it difficult to complete common tasks; and it was not WCAG 2.0 compliant for accessibility.

We analysed the quantitative and qualitative data from our research and in close consultation with the project team, we developed:

• a topic-based and logical information architecture and navigation model to expose and order priority user information, tasks, tools and services
• responsive wireframes and high-level functional specifications for key pages
• five personas representing typical users
• recommendations for content, visual design and enhanced functionality (including enhanced searchfor all content and assets)
• a timeline and costs to support the development and ongoing maintenance of the site.

The result is realistic phased development plan for the design, content development and build phases for a new Earth Resources website that meets the needs of all users.