Precinct Portal

The City Renewal Authority (the Authority) identified a need to go beyond the conventional mechanisms of traditional government communication formats to establish more meaningful engagement with the community. With a business portfolio that ranges from placemaking activations to multi-million dollar infrastructure projects, the Authority identified a requirement to better communicate projects, educate our community, and facilitate consultation with the public. The Authority sought to create additional offering to our existing traditional digital content, that would provide content that is more accessible for visual learners.

The precinct portal is an interactive experience of our precinct with a clean distinctive design language that allows the users curiosity to discover with our work. This portal maps out the current and future works being undertaken by the Authority through effective information pathways. This allows users to choose how they interact with our information through clear, consistent navigation and enables users to engage digitally with spaces in Canberra’s city precinct. By providing a holistic view of our projects and options to engage with projects, the Authority was able to communicate key messages and marketing the outcomes with the community.

The portal enabled community members to immerse themselves within key projects, upgrades and provide feedback. By taking an approach to accessibility that went beyond WCAG 2.0 the portal was able to make our projects more accessible than ever before for visual learners and those that struggled with reading. During the pilot (26/06/21 - 05/11/21) we saw the average time spent on our website go from 2 minutes and 46 seconds to 9 minutes and 12 seconds. This resulted in greater engagement across our City Walk Upgrade and ultimately a better result on the ground that was people first and design led.

Developed in collaboration with Formswell and Spatial Media, the Authority focused on the user experience as integral element of an agile design process. An innovative product that reflects an evolution of government digital practices, offering an engaging and immersive experience that is both more accessible and informative. The portal supports. animations, 3D visualisations, images, image sliders and video content. The portal invites users the chance to linger and dive into the detail of how their city is changing. The interactive portal also provides an overview of the different urban renewal projects the Authority is working on and explains how these initiatives are interconnected to make Canberra city an even better place. 3D assets, image sliders, animations, embedded 3D visualisations and video content and for others it may include images, graphs, documentation, maps and options for community input. The content for these “micro-sites” will be embedded into our project contracts.