The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is a collaborative open platform that houses Australian biodiversity data from several sources, making it accessible at a large scale. They are a division of the CSIRO and offer access to a bunch of powerful tools for scientists, environmental planners, land managers, as well as the general public. Due to the shear size of the system and the data it houses, the website was understandably confusing and difficult to use.
Universal Experience for a CSIRO Organisation
Redesigning the Atlas of Living Australia website to make a better experience for users of all backgrounds
The Problem
ALA engaged us to redesign their main website, which serves as an entry point for all their tools and an aggregate for several data sources. The new site needed to be easier to use and more focused so that users would no longer get confused about what ALA offer. To add complexity, the new site would need to accommodate multiple user groups, with differing levels of knowledge. On top of the website redesign, I was tasked with rebranding 2 of their biggest tools, BioCollect and ZoaTrack. Following the redesign of the main site, the BioCollect and ZoaTrack sub-sites would be redesigned to emphasize their purpose and make them easier to interact with.
The Client
THE PROCESS
The learning stage
The data we were able to collect from the multiple analytics systems ALA were using was invaluable and helped guide us to where the current system was falling short. Following conversations with their teams about the services that needed to be prioritized, we had a solid idea of how we were going to approach the redesign.
We began the design phase with low-fidelity wireframes. This is where it was decided how we would tailor content to specific user groups. A massive challenge here was deciding how data from different sources would interact with each other and how to emphasize certain tools and functionality. This would continue to challenge us throughout the entire project. In review of the wireframes the resounding feedback was SIMPLIFY. It turned out that even after halving the size of the homepage and stripping away a lot of unnecessary content, it was still too busy.
THE PROCESS
The pecking order
When designing the final high-fidelity concepts, I stripped back content even further, instead opting for a more structured and consistent content hierarchy:
1. Actions & Resources
2. Data
3. Content
The actions, resources and data would change depending on the user group, while the content would be universal. This structure would significantly improve our mobile experience too. I also added the ability for the user to “customize” their experience by choosing their own user group.
THE PROCESS
A system to rule them all
When turning my attention to their sub brands, I wanted to focus on providing a consistent experience, while making it obvious when the user entered the sub site. We wanted these to feel like a unified set of tools, instead of separate brands, like they were previously. The design system that I had developed for the main site now flows through to both brands. I redesigned the sub brand logos with this same goal in mind.
The Little Details
We wanted to communicate a sense of community since majority of the data is user-submitted, and along with ALA, we decided to emphasize that user-submitted content, publicly featuring and attributing that content. This and custom iconography complimented the final result.