About Shire of Harvey
The Shire of Harvey is recognised as one of the fastest-growing shires in WA.
They aim to keep in touch with the local community and respond to issues proactively as they arise, as well as plan long-term strategy.
The challenge
The previous Shire of Harvey website was outdated and made it difficult for users to find the information and documentation they needed. Our aim was to create a website design that encourages the Shire of Harvey’s large population of older users to use the website as much as possible. To do this we had to make sure the site was simple to navigate, able to be easily maintained by the shire staff and had accessibility requirements of level WCAG 2.1 AA.
The solution
For the Shire of Harvey website, the initial planning stages of the project were crucial to ensure we solved the challenges of all stakeholders. Prior to starting the design, we conducted lots user research to be able to create an information architecture.
User research
To redesign the website to align with the Shire of Harvey’s goals, we conducted lots of user-focused IA research including stakeholder interviews. We also used data from the previous website to find records of what the local community had contacted the shire about so we could gain a comprehensive understanding of the needs of the local community.
Information architecture (IA)
Once the user research had been completed, we were able to conduct a thorough, complex and detailed IA planning process to allow Shire of Harvey website users to easily access the content that is the most relevant to them.
User interface design
As accessibility was a crucial piece of this project, we analysed the brand’s colours and fonts to make sure they met the AA requirements prior to the design stage. We also created custom interactive icons and graphics to support the website, build the brand and enhance their modern look.
The results
