At a glance

$101K-$200K
2022
4 to 6 months
Completed
CivicTheme, GovCMS, Drupal
Federal government
Discovery & strategy, Design & user research, Build & migration, Content & training
Whole of government, Open design, Open source, Web development, Content management systems, Drupal Planet
User needs, Multidisciplinary teams, Agile delivery, Tools & systems, Design, Open standards & common platforms, Open source, Accessibility

Overview

Access Hub’s challenge

Access HubExternal Link content was a set of pages on the main Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications and the Arts websiteExternal Link . The team wanted a new, dedicated, fit-for-purpose, highly accessible Access Hub website designed and built within a limited budget.

Access Hub’s transformation

Salsa worked with our design partners, TodayExternal Link . Today looked after human-centred visual design (using CivicThemeExternal Link components as the base) and content design. Salsa then worked on content writing/editing, the site build on GovCMSExternal Link , and accessibility testing.

The outcomes

  • A new, visually appealing dedicated website
  • User-tested design
  • Updated content, maximised for the online medium
  • Quick, easy and cost-effective site build with GovCMS and CivicTheme
Screenshot of Accesshub homepage in tablet

“We are very pleased with the end product and have received positive feedback.”

Anna Snidaro
Assistant Director, Communications Accessibility, Consumer Safeguards

Detailed case study

Below is detailed information on the challenge, transformation and final outcomes/benefits.

Access Hub’s challenge — hidden content in a large site

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications and the Arts websiteExternal Link covers a broad range of subjects and content. However, important Access Hub content was difficult to find on the large website. The team wanted a new, dedicated Access Hub websiteExternal Link .

The content is very important, because it covers essential information and communication services for people who are d/Deaf, hard of hearing and/or have speech communication difficulty. It includes information and access to National Relay Service options.

The Department went out to tender to find a suitable partner to design and build the new site. The tender also included content work such as information architecture (IA) design and content writing and editing.

Access Hub had a fixed budget.

Access Hub’s transformation — a user-tested dedicated website

Access Hub’s transformation covered human-centred design, content design, content writing/editing and site build. Salsa’s proposed solution was a GovCMSExternal Link website, built using CivicThemeExternal Link (a design system and Drupal 9/10 theme).

Access Hub design

Salsa and our design partners TodayExternal Link kicked off the project with a 6-week design and discovery process. During this time, Today followed its usual human-centred design approach, focusing on the end users’ needs. The designs went through several iterations, based on user testing and client feedback. All designs were based on CivicTheme, keeping to out-of-the-box components when possible. However, the design did end up having quite a few custom components.

Today also worked on the best way to organise the content. This included the menu structure and user journeys. For example, a user can self-identify their situation and communication preferences:

  • I use Auslan
  • I am d/Deaf and use English
  • I am hard of hearing
  • I have speech communication difficulty

Below you can see how visual design and content design work together to help users find the information that applies to them.

Screenshot of Accesshub services

Today created a range of custom icons to help with visual communication. They also created a new visual template to show how different types of calls work. Below is an example for how Video Relay calls work.

Image showing steps of how a video relay call work

Access Hub content

Access Hub subject matter experts provided initial copy for the new website. With the new information architecture and user journeys set up by Today, our Salsa content strategist needed to write new content pages and re-write others to fit with the new structure. All content pages were also edited to ensure they followed web writing best practice, including meeting content accessibility standards. While the original brief was for 20 pages of content, the final content was nearly double the size, and many of the pages needed to be long, with detailed instructions for users.

The site build

The dev work started in parallel with the content writing/editing. Although the project was being built using CivicTheme, Today’s designs did require custom frontend and backend development. The customisations included:

  • A custom header with three quick links for users
  • A custom subscribe block
  • Card customisations
  • Custom accordions so step-by-step instructions can be embedded in accordions
  • A customised sitemap
  • A print stylesheet so pages, including content in accordions, can be visually styled ready for printing
  • Custom search

Below is an example of the custom accordions for step-by-step instructions.

Accesshub - custom accordions for step-by-step instructions

The outcomes — a user-tested site on GovCMS

  • A new, visually appealing, dedicated Access Hub websiteExternal Link

  • Many accessible features and different ways of accessing information — including videos, diagrams and images

  • User-tested and validated design

  • Updated content, maximised for the online medium

  • Quick, easy and cost-effective site build with GovCMS and CivicTheme

  • The benefits of the whole-of-government platform GovCMS, including open source code (no licensing fees), access to the GovCMS community, and a highly resilient and secure platform

About Access Hub

Access HubExternal Link is a website from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications and the Arts. Access Hub provides important information and links to services for people who are d/Deaf, hard of hearing and/or have speech communication difficulty. The site includes information about the National Relay Service (NRS) and different NRS call types, as well as other information and resources.