I’ve been working with the Department of Communications and the Arts (DOCA) on a quick turn-around project to replatform their aging Australian Classifications website. As the Federal Government body that handles classifying all film, games, and some publications, they need to both be able to provide key industry tools for people wanting to undertake the process of getting their media classsified; and keep the general public informed about when a film or game has been rated M, G, or PG (and why).
The UX for this project was challenging, due mostly to the complexity of the search functionality on the site. I partnered with experts in Government open source platforms, Salsa Digital, and worked with their Solutions Architect to prototype better search solutions that could be executed technically within the constraints created working with a huge and variable database of classification decisions spanning the last 30 years.
After testing and discarding some of our early ideas, we were able to develop a simple, usable solution that will make it easier for the general public to understand the search results.
Feedback from users was incredibly positive, with comments like “It’s all self-explanatory”, “I knew exactly where to go”, and from one mum who now knows where to search to find out if violent video games are actually suitable for her young son or not: “Is this a real website? This is great. My son is going to hate me.”
The platform is under development now.
