Behind the scenes of the Living in NSW page redesign

Primary navigation on nsw.gov.au has 5 main categories. Based on user behaviour, they’re designed to make it easier for customers to locate and navigate to relevant content.

The categories are:

• Living in NSW
• Working and business
• What’s happening
• Have your say
• COVID-19. 

The “Living in NSW” page helps residents find information on government services and support. The challenge of this page was to display the content in an easy and accessible way.
 

Why redesign?

“Living in NSW” covers a broad range of topics, relevant to all NSW residents. 

The previous version of the page was overwhelming and confusing:

• Content was text-heavy.
• There were no visual elements to help users differentiate between sections.
•  We did not set user expectations of where calls-to-action on the page would take them.
• The page required long scrolling on mobile devices.

We had the opportunity to redesign the page to provide context and visual cues.

Our three key goals were to:

1. highlight commonly searched terms
2. feature key content
3. make it easier to use on mobile devices.

We used heat maps as part of the initial research to understand where customers were looking and clicking across the page. We learned which content captured attention, and what wasn’t working so well. Through analytics, we found that three topic areas accounted for over 70% of all page clicks. These insights helped us highlight content that was most important to customers on the page.

Key features of the redesign

One challenge of the “Living in NSW” page was the number of links to click on and their lack of hierarchy on the page. The updated page now calls out the information that customers are most likely to search for and visit.

The trending topics module serves content based on customer trends. The tags use customer-centric language. This bridges the gap between official terminology and keywords people use when they are searching online. For example, ‘How strata works in NSW’ is more descriptive as a call to action versus the topic 'Strata'. 

A feature box can promote topical content, such as news or upcoming events from other areas of nsw.gov.au. 
 

Previously, the list of “Living in NSW” topics was extensive and displayed in a large grid with little context. Through Google Analytics data, we learned some categories were more popular than others. 

To help users find this content, we identified three popular topics:

• driving
• boating and transport
• visas and migration.

To support those who respond better to visual cues, we added explanatory text and icons to these topics.
 

We built the featured items in a flexible way so that we can update these when customer usage patterns change. This module-based design means we can rearrange and swap out content when necessary. 

45% of our customers visit on a mobile device, making it a key consideration for the redesign. We created a new list link navigation, making the page easier to scan and scroll. 
 

Positive feedback

Initial testing on the updated “Living in NSW” page was very positive. 
Testers recognised the link list as navigation. Where they couldn't find the primary category they were looking for, they were able to identify a relevant and useful alternative. 

They described the page as “intuitive”, “straightforward” and “clear and easy to read”. Some feedback suggested confusion with some labels, such as 'Family and relationships' and 'Life events'. We will test other versions of these labels to reduce confusion. 

Using learnings

The research conducted by changing one page can benefit the rest of the website too. By knowing what worked on “Living in NSW”, we made similar improvements on the “Working and business” and “What's happening” pages.

We will continue to review heat maps and analytics on these pages to make sure they meet customer needs. 

Want to learn more about how we make design decisions for a better customer experience? Check out our recent blog post: Testing and learning to make design decisions.

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