The kaitiaki of electricity
The Electricity Authority is responsible for overseeing and regulating Aotearoa’s electricity market. They are committed to consumers and keep their needs front and centre of regulatory decisions.
The problem
The Authority’s website had grown organically over time and was overwhelming for their team and audiences. With over 4,500 pages and 16,000 documents they needed a brand new website and content management system (CMS) that was easy to use, reflected their brand and values, and helped them deliver to their strategic ambitions.
Content wrangling
First we needed to decide what content should stay, go or be created. We ran workshops with internal subject matter experts and worked closely with the team to design a new information architecture (IA). This was a huge milestone for the project given the volume of content. It gave us a plan for the site structure which allowed us to accurately scope the build phase, identify pages that needed to be written and assist the Authority with their resourcing effort. Finally we tested the IA with industry and consumers. This helped us identify jargon that needed to be simplified and ensure the new structure was easy to navigate.
The brand evolution
Armed with a refreshed brand by EightyOne, we created a new design system for the website detailing typography, colours, components and page templates. We spent time understanding their strategic goals and created beautiful, bespoke design elements to bring their priority content to life, such as Your Meter and Projects.
The new website is the first major expression of the brand refresh, so we worked closely with EightyOne to refine the design system and ensure our designs aligned with the team’s vision for the brand.
With a brand refresh comes a new tone of voice. We created a content strategy for the new website alongside tone of voice and style guidelines.
A brand new CMS
We chose Wagtail for the Authority’s new CMS for its ease of use, flexibility, and intuitive content management system. Wagtail’s user-friendly admin interface makes it easy for editors to manage content. The Authority can also set permissions for staff outside the Comms team who need access to the CMS and assign different roles (editor, moderator or both). Wagtail is designed with accessibility in mind and has built in features such as ARIA landmarks, headings and keyboard navigation.
Phased delivery
The team at the Authority were keen to start content loading as soon as possible. Our teams worked closely to develop a three phased delivery plan that allowed early access to parts of the CMS with large volumes of content. Working this way, we were also able to make subtle but meaningful improvements to the CMS experience informed by their team’s first-hand experiences.
Beyond
With the necessary intuitive tools and a modern and accessible digital platform, the Authority is equipped to deliver to its strategic ambitions. For now and in the years to come.
