Project Overview
National Disability Services (NDS) is Australia's peak body for non-government disability service organisations, representing more than 1050 non-government service providers.
Collectively, NDS members operate several thousand services for Australians with all types of disability.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
National Disability Services:
Daniel Kyriacou – NDS General Manager Communications (Project Owner)
Pradeep Wickramanayaka - Full Stack Developer – (Project Lead)
Belinda Allen - Membership Development Manager – (Stakeholder Engagement)
Katherine McLellan – Sector Engagement Officer – (Communications Messaging)
Adam Margerison - CRM Administrator – (CRM Design and Intergration)
Butterfly:
Brad Masters (Product owner)
Sophie Anderton (Designer)
Arash Arabi (Scrum Master)
Ricardo Salinas (Solution Architect)
Bassam Othman (Lead Developer)
Dylan McTaggart (Developer)
Heesien Ooi (Developer)
Carol Galila (Developer)
Sean Shi (Developer)
Aaron Cameron (Test Analyst)
John Anderton (Business Development)
Liz McLean (Strategy, IA)
Nathan Jones (IT Support)
Project Brief
NDS’ members (non-government disability service providers) range from large to small, and the organisation’s services are equally as varied. The previous site made it impossible for members to find what they were looking for because of the outdated, clunky CMS which made updates challenging, and information architecture almost impossible to change. Content is limited according to membership levels to encourage users to upgrade, and new members also needed an easy way to join up and find information relevant to them.
Our mission was to make sense of a labyrinth of content and create clear navigation paths that all members – both old and new – could follow.
It was also important for NDS that the site followed WCAG guidelines. We built to WCAG 2.0 Level AA, keeping WCAG in mind for both design and development. This meant extra coding and tons of testing, but thankfully this is the kind of challenge our team loves.
Project Need
Sorting out the information architecture of the site was a big part of this project. Members needed to find content by following menu navigation pathways and also through search, so the solution was to introduce tagging. Butterfly worked closely with NDS to figure out how many tags there should be and what they should be - for all 765 pieces of content being tagged!
Another aspect of this project was the complex integration system required. At the same time that were weaving our magic using Joomla as our Content Management System, NDS was moving to Microsoft Dynamics as its Customer Relationship Management system. Our CMS had to talk to the new and customised CRM for NDS staff to add content, and manage their users’ subscriptions and access levels.
Because of this added complexity, not only did we need to create clear pathways for users, we also had to make sure we didn’t lose people while they were waiting for the CRM to sort through all the data - we spent a lot of time on performance optimisation to get complex pages to load quickly.
User Experience
We always centre our design around user requirements and content strategy, and never more so than for NDS who needed something engaging and exciting to take to market. We modernised the look, boosted the number of images and made the site responsive. Multiple menus were a must because of the complexity of the information architecture, so we differentiated clearly between the different levels.
The most popular or current content also appears in large blocks on the homepage and we’ve colour coded different types of content like news, policy, event information and training. Users may not notice this subtlety straight up, but it’s a very effective way to guide them along the path.
And that takes us right back to tagging. As NDS needed to be empowered to add new tags to the CRM, we set things up so the tags automatically go into Joomla and populate the menus, so just as we cleared a path for the user, we cleared a path for NDS to take charge.
For the end user as well as the staff at NDS, the result is an easy to use, fast loading site with a fresh responsive design.
Project Marketing
NDS introduced members to the new site during a conference, walking them through many of the new features – there were many to highlight! From the new Resources Directory and NDIS Hub, a single online location that brings together the latest news, policy, resources, events and training, to the Disability Employment Hub, a one-stop shop designed for supported employment and open employment providers.
It was important to show members how easily the site could be used to access information, and the improved navigation pathways and fresh design went a long way towards winning over the members during the launch.
But let’s not forget how important this new site was for NDS staff! NDS promoted the new site internally as well as showcasing it for all of their staff, just as they had for the members. For the first time, an unlimited number of NDS staff can be linked to an organisational profile, providing them with access to member-only content on the NDS website and e-news updates. What a time saver!
Overall, the new design has enhanced NDS’s ability to inform members, influence policy, and be a stronger voice for the disability sector.
Digital - Community
This category is all about helping our communities to connect and engage, from emergency services to Not for Profits to social groups, these apps and sites not may not only assist in delivery but also create efficiencies providing those at the coalface more time to do their important work whether it be fighting fires or managing the local team. It's not all serious though we're also looking for projects that work to help bring the community groups together with fun and enjoyable activities.
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