A user-centred discovery to guide redevelopment
Understanding current and future state
Avian began with a current state analysis, reviewing existing evidence, analytics, accessibility performance and representative content, and conducting heuristic evaluation, benchmarking and information architecture analysis.
We facilitated interviews and workshops with internal stakeholders and external users, using early concept sketches and future state examples as provocations to surface needs and test future directions.
Insights informed a suite of recommendations to further strengthen content, design, navigation and usability in the short and long term, including a new information architecture that reorganised key tasks and content around user journeys. A clickable prototype brought these ideas to life to show how the website might evolve in the future to meet AMSA and user needs.
Technology, platform and support models
Building on the user and content insights, Avian worked with technology specialists to define CMS and hosting requirements, shortlisted viable platform options and assessed each against whole of government standards and AMSA’s risk profile.
This culminated in an options paper that set out trade offs, risks and support model implications, giving AMSA clear choices tailored to its context rather than a single prescribed answer.
Content governance
Avian’s content specialists examined how content was created, reviewed and maintained across AMSA’s digital environment.
The focus was on practical governance, including decision rights, workflows and ownership, rather than a purely theoretical model.
Insights from this stream informed both platform requirements and the future information architecture, so that any new site could be sustained over time and key safety information remained accurate and accessible.
Investment planning and roadmap
Avian brought all findings together into a redevelopment roadmap, business case and website consolidation plan. This connected user needs, technology options and governance considerations into a staged path that AMSA could use to plan its Alpha and later phases with confidence.
Practical artefacts that made decisions easier
Rather than producing abstract recommendations, the discovery was designed around tangible artefacts that AMSA could use immediately in planning and decision making. These included:
- a discovery report that synthesised research, heuristic evaluation, content review, benchmarking and accessibility findings, and provided practical guidance from quick wins AMSA could act on immediately through to bigger ideas for the future
- a new information architecture tested with users, including revised navigation, site maps and page types for priority journeys
- interactive design concepts focused on emerging technologies such as AI assisted search and smarter ways of presenting complex regulatory content
- a platform options paper with clear comparisons and risk considerations
- an investment roadmap, covering platform choices as well as the projects and organisational strategies AMSA would need in place to realise the future website vision
- a website consolidation plan that outlined practical scenarios for rationalising satellite sites.
These artefacts created a shared reference point for policy, ICT and operational teams, supporting decisions that considered user needs, technology and operational realities together.
Human-centred and collaborative approach
Given the breadth of AMSA’s stakeholders, Avian designed the engagement to fit around busy teams and varied perspectives. User interviews, internal workshops and testing sessions with both AMSA staff and external users allowed people to contribute insights without excessive disruption to daily work. Risk and governance were treated as shared responsibilities, with a combined focus from Avian and AMSA on surfacing constraints early and resolving them collaboratively.
Recognising that AMSA’s current platforms and processes shape digital habits and expectations, the team used facilitated sessions to bring staff and users into the design process. These conversations focused first on people’s goals and contexts, then translated those insights into platform and information architecture decisions informed by evidence rather than habit.
Balancing quick wins with a bold future vision
The discovery work connected the current website experience with a clear vision for the future. By bringing user needs together with AMSA’s strategic goals, the work mapped a path from today’s experience to a more ambitious future state.
The team identified practical, low risk enhancements to content, navigation, accessibility and governance that AMSA could act on immediately, while also defining a longer term direction for how maritime safety information should be delivered online.
Interactive concepts were used to explore emerging technologies and new interaction patterns. This helped AMSA weigh what was feasible now against what would be required to build a genuinely future ready digital front door, ensuring that the roadmap combined actionable steps with a strong, innovation focused vision.
Setting AMSA up for confident investment
By the end of the engagement, AMSA held a coherent, evidence based view of what its primary website needed to do, how it should be structured and governed, and which technology and support models were most suitable. The discovery provided AMSA with the artefacts and alignment needed to proceed into an investment decision and later phases with confidence, including a set of requirements, a new information architecture and design concepts.
Why it matters
For a regulator that keeps seas clean and safe, digital channels are not simply communication tools. They are often the first and most frequent point of contact for people navigating complex rules, urgent incidents and high risk environments.
By grounding AMSA’s website redevelopment in rigorous discovery, Avian helped support future investments in a site that is clearer to navigate, easier to maintain and well aligned to the needs of the people who rely on maritime safety information every day.