The Australian Government launched an Age Assurance Trial to explore solutions for safeguarding children from harmful online content. The brief required the creation of an independent and unbiased web platform to serve as a central hub for the trial and assessment of age assurance technologies.

Key Challenges: Building trust and transparency, ensuring secure data protection, rapid development due to time sensitivity, and providing seamless wayfinding for diverse user groups.

Key Stakeholders: Industry Representatives, Government Officials, Trial Participants, and the General Public.

My role was end-to-end, covering project delivery from scoping, design, front-end development, through to launch and post-launch updates.

• Strategic Planning and Platform Selection: Conducted a Discovery Workshop to define requirements and developed the sitemap. Selected WordPress for its speed-to-market, ease of use, and client familiarity.
• Design & Development: Utilised a design-in-browser approach to fast-track the design phase. Focused on a clean, professional aesthetic to convey credibility and reliability.
• Key Functionality Design (UX): Designed the Practice Statement form with a save-and-return feature and PDF output to support participants. Developed other functional web forms for expressions of interest and public contact.
• Transparency & Trust: Implemented features like Project Team Bios and a Conflict of Interest Register to highlight impartiality and build trust.

The final web platform successfully met the objectives, establishing confidence, ensuring secure data handling, and supporting the trial’s rapid deployment.

• Trust and Transparency: The professional and transparent design and features reinforced the trial’s independent nature.
• Enhanced User Functionality: The save-and-return feature on the Practice Statement form was a key UX success, allowing participants to manage complex submissions at their own pace.
• Secure Data Handling: Sensitive data collected via web forms was managed securely, with no long-term storage on the website to mitigate privacy risks.
• Rapid Deployment: The platform was delivered on time, enabling the trial’s promotional efforts.

Successful and rapid deployment of a secure, transparent, and user-friendly central hub. The platform’s design and functionality (e.g., seamless navigation and the Practice Statement form’s advanced features) directly enhanced stakeholder engagement and supported the trial’s objective of providing unbiased assessment.

While content management was efficient, I would have mandated a more formal, centralised content strategy and governance document from the Discovery Phase. This would have better supported administrators to manage and update content throughout a time-sensitive trial, ensuring visual consistency was maintained under pressure.