VCAA public website development and content authorship training

The challenge

The VCAA website is the key channel for providing information to the organisation’s government and non-government audiences.

The site was heavily used but had grown unwieldy, with most sought-after information difficult to find in a confusing information architecture. There was poor SEO implementation, common tasks were difficult to complete and there were over 8000 documents held on the site. 

Approach

We helped VCAA to conduct a content audit of the VCAA website to quantify content assets, analyse Google Analytics data, and make recommendations for the migration and archiving of content. The aim was to significantly reduce the number of webpages by 30%. 

To identify and understand user behaviour, preferences and common pain points we conducted extensive user research with parents, students and educators.

Using this research, we devised a simple, single site structure. The new information architecture was based on priority user-centric topics and a reduced number of web pages and documents. This structure was tested and refined with 94 users.

Ten key web and mobile interface design wireframes were developed featuring multiple navigation options and promoting high-use tasks, information and services. Moderated usability testing with representative users validated these wireframes achieving an extremely high System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 94.2 for usability and a perfect 100 for learnability. Participants considered the wireframes to be informative, easy to use and understandable. 

A new content strategy was developed and existing editorial guidelines were revamped. The content development process we undertook with VCAA staff ensured content was easily browsable, readable, and accessible for all the site’s users.

We completed the project by working with VCAA’s digital team to develop and deliver customised training to content authors to improve their writing for the web skills.