We identified our existing building and resource consenting section’s information architecture (IA) (WayBack machine link https://web.archive.org/web/20230125002143/https:/www.kapiticoast.govt.nz/your-council/planning/) was confusing to use, hard for our customers to find information, and hindered expansion of online information in existing structure. Our project improved user testing success from 17% to 75%, with directness scores from 57% to 80%.
Recognising the limits of our traditional consenting IA, we surveyed other council sites, but found they used similar structures.
Working with our Resource Consents, Building Consents, Customer Engagement and Customer Experience teams, we identified the main problems they were experiencing with the site, issues they were hearing about from customers and where they saw customers going wrong, and where they saw information gaps that could lead to wins for customers wanting to self-serve.
Initially we redesigned the IA with our consenting team, using their knowledge to identify information “buckets”, organised in the way that made most sense to them as experts in these areas. Testing showed this approach was better than our existing structure, taking customers’ success rates from 17% to 37%, and directness from 57% to 62%. We felt we could do better with a bit more work.
Knowing we needed to support groups of customers with specific process questions, as well as those with more general “what kind of pool fence do I need” project questions, and taking advantage of the business analysis background of a couple of our team, we asked our business teams to trust us with a new approach. With their agreement, we adopted a business analysis approach to map high-level process stages and develop a user-friendly "Prepare – Apply – Assess – Update – Certify" process. This formed the basis for our user-centred IA, with supporting information alongside and interlinking with the process information. This revised IA achieved a 75% success rate and an 80% directness score in customer tree testing.
It was also important to us to ensure the website was mobile-friendly and accessible across various devices, for any time, anywhere access.
Launched in February 2024, our revised Consenting section (https://www.kapiticoast.govt.nz/propertyhousingandrates/), co-located with our rates and more general housing content, received positive feedback from our customers and stakeholders.
Phase 2 involves integrating content from PDFs and addressing information gaps, with ongoing feedback loops planned.
The project has achieved notable success, significantly enhancing our customer experience and operational efficiency.
• Improved metrics: The new IA increased the success rate for finding correct content from 17 percent to 75 percent, and the directness score from 57 percent to 80 percent, demonstrating substantial improvements in navigation and content accessibility.
• Strengthened relationships: The project fostered strong, ongoing collaboration between the Building Consents, Resource Consents, Customer Engagement, Customer Experience and Content and Channels teams. Weekly catchups have ensured rapid response to issues, enhanced trust, and a unified focus on delivering accurate, customer-friendly content that meets accessibility and usability standards in addition to accuracy and IANZ certification requirements.
• Reduced customer complaints: Post-launch, we’ve observed a decrease in customer complaints about website navigation. The reduction in calls indicates users can now find the information they need more effectively, with fewer instances of not being able to find content that’s on the website.
• Best practice: The project demonstrated best practice in developing customer-focussed information architecture by applying iterative design processes and continuous user testing, which will be applied to future website projects.
• Efficiency gains: We can see our collaborative approach and enhanced IA will over time lead to further cost savings and efficiency gains, improving customers’ ability to self-serve and enabling quicker content development and sign-off through building trust between our teams.
• Increased awareness: Heightened awareness of importance of customer-focused design throughout our business, and established a model for integrating stakeholder feedback into web development processes.
• Impact: The improvements in the IA have enhanced customer satisfaction and streamlined internal operations, showcasing effective management of public resources and commitment to best practice. Moving forward, we’ll continue to apply these learnings to further optimise our website and maintain high standards of accessibility and usability.
This project highlighted the importance of collaborating across Council teams to ensure comprehensive cohesive consenting content, gaining the trust of the business, and user testing to improve our customer experience.