What
A Drupal-powered SaaS, PaaS and open source distro for government.
Why
To redevelop the website so GovCMS was easier to understand, easier to use, more accessible and better suited to a range of devices.
Who
Department of Finance
Working in Australian Government Information Management Office on whole-of-government Information and Communications Technology, digital services and web standards. I worked with a small web-focused team, working my way up from apprentice to Whole of Government Software as a Service tech lead.
How
Branding
As part of the redesign I refined the GovCMS logo and explored an updated brand colour palette. The final site ultimately retained the existing colours, but the branding work presented a cleaner, more contemporary option and helped shape the visual direction.
Design
After clarifying the site requirements, I researched the main user flows and produced a wireframe-level design. Once the key elements were confirmed and the visual styles I'd created were agreed upon, I began development.
Development
Built a custom Drupal theme for the site. It needed to be responsive, keep
page weight down, load quickly, and support HiDPI screens, so the front end
used vector imagery and icons where that made sense.
I started with a static HTML version covering the required page types,
then migrated it into a Drupal theme for the GovCMS platform.
Beyond the redesign, I worked across multiple technical areas within the wider GovCMS service team. My DTOstrap theme layer ( case study) was also dog-fooded by other developers on sites such as directory.gov.au.
I also helped external agencies onboard to GovCMS by working on their Drupal themes. Some were migration-focused builds based on the existing site design, with minor accessibility fixes made along the way, while others were broader redesigns. For several projects, agency developers joined our sprints so we could build with them and leave their internal teams ready to maintain the result.
Imagery + Icons
Created imagery and icons for marketing pages, announcements and supporting site content.
With
-
API -
Custom CSS -
Drupal -
GitHub -
Illustrator -
JavaScript -
Linux -
Photoshop -
PHP
Prototype
User testing feedback
Very easy to understand, nice layout.
Looks very clear; good to be able to compare, gives me more of an understanding.
Tells me straight away what it is.
In the media
The judges felt GovCMS, which came out of the Department of Finance, was the project that did the most “contributing to a culture or practice of innovation” in this year's entrants.
…the govt's quiet achiever…
GovCMS: transforming the way governments operate online
Final product
