Background
The Australian National University (ANU) had its sustainability content buried within its main website, making it difficult to access information about the university’s sustainability goals and mission.
Purpose
ANU wanted to make their sustainability branch more forefront and accessible for future students and potential stakeholders.
Duration
6 months
Deliverables
Website wireframes
Front and backend development
Responsibilities undertaken
Website strategy/planning
Website mockups
Front and backend website development
Point of contact for Giraffe
Management of expectations and milestones for Giraffe and ANU Sustainability for website launch
Approach/process
Website strategy
As a new website, identifying the user journey and key pages was essential, achieved by brainstorming features and page names on paper and organising them to design the optimal sitemap.
Website wireframing
Since the ANU website theme was being used and was well documented, it was not necessary to create full mockups of the website. Wireframes were created to streamline the project with links to other ANU websites so the client could understand what the page could look like.
Content audit
To ensure the website was user-friendly for non-developers and those without web expertise, a content audit was conducted to help design a backend that is intuitive and easy to use.
Frontend and backend development
Before beginning full website development, the homepage was presented to the client for approval. Once approved, the rest of the site was built using consistent layouts to maintain a cohesive design. Content types, taxonomies, and views were configured prior to applying the ANU website theme styling across the website.
Challenges
During the initial frontend development of the website, differing opinions led to misunderstandings that ultimately delayed the project timeline.
Multiple content iterations sent through the backend made it messy and reduced the effectiveness of creating a user-friendly backend.
Solutions
Recurring meetings were scheduled with assigned milestones for each party to complete. Following each meeting, an email summary would be sent to all parties to ensure everyone was on the same page and to prevent miscommunication.