Background

‘Design systems’ are the driving force behind the world’s most complex digital products and services. They offer designers and developers a set of repeatable components and standards used to unify designs and drive development efficiencies. Our agency was tasked with delivering a new design system for the Australian Department of Defence web estate – a collection of over 100 disparate websites built over many years on numerous platforms. With Defence migrating their web estate to the GovCMS SaaS platform (government compliant, managed CMS and hosting solution) our team deployed a design system, simplified the site’s information architecture, improved user experience, and built a centrally-managed component library for use across their vast web estate. Our digital team worked with the Defence web team to produce wireframe prototypes, build a new Defence Design System using the ‘Atomic Design’ framework, and develop a front-end component library that was consistent, semantic and accessible.

Describe the strategy

Key to the success of this transformational project would be developing a content strategy that aligned with the government's best-practice principles for designing and delivering government services. Our approach to reviewing the Defence web estate was user-centred and evidence-based. We implemented both quantitative (content audits, stakeholder and user surveys, analytics and statistics); and qualitative methods (desktop review, stakeholder consultation, heat-maps and user videos) as part of our review process. The strategy would act as a blueprint for future design & development stages. Key deliverables for the content strategy included: - Facilitated stakeholder consultation sessions and audience surveys - Developing user personas - Reviewing site data and analytics for insights and trends - Conducting an extensive content audit - Undertaking best practice peer review - Refining the information architecture and conducting treejack testing - Developing a content lifecycle and governance processes - Producing a final content strategy report and implementation roadmap.

Describe the execution

Our team developed a front-end component library that web teams can use when building compliant sub-sites or they choose components best suited to their stand-alone site. Front-end components are centrally managed, updates can be made to a single code base that auto-updates sub-sites tied to the library. This ensures design consistency and reduces the risk of multiple code bases fracturing over time. Defence and our developers set about building the Defence.gov.au beta website in GovCMS – developing new components as the need arose. Our content team oversaw content review and migration into the beta website, conducted audits, ensuring consistency and accuracy. The strategy, new Defence Design System and new website took approximately two years of effort to complete. This project is ongoing with sub-sites being migrated into the new system and numerous rounds of refinement expected for a web estate of this scale.

List the results

Results are difficult to quantify for a project of this type and magnitude. The initiative was designed to standardise the Defence web estate look-and-feel, centralise management via a single code repository, and drive time and cost efficiencies for future website design and development projects. It has achieved all these targets, and stands as a showcase for best-practice website deployment for governments.