Case study: Single Digital Presence

Time frame: 12 months
Budget: $450,000
Team size: 20
Key contact: Amber Benjafield

How can government create digital content faster while being more user friendly?

As government services and information moved online hundreds of independently created and managed websites were built across the Victorian Public Sector.

This fragmented approach meant that websites:

• had different designs and content management systems
• displayed siloed, outdated and contradictory information
• didn’t meet privacy, security and accessibility standards
• became expensive and burdensome to develop and maintain

For citizens it led to confusion and wasted time due to inaccurate information and experiences. To fix this the Digital, Design and Innovation branch of the Department of Premier and Cabinet built Single Digital Presence (SDP), an open and flexible platform for government agencies that would reduce the cost and effort of digital development.

To create the platform the SDP project team had to consider the needs of numerous government agencies as well as citizens. The SDP project team employed human-centred design principles to research, test and improve throughout the planning, design and development process.

Project goals

Single Digital Presence aims to:

• make it easier for citizens to find, understand and use Victorian Government information
• deliver a flexible, integrated solution for building government websites quickly and cost-effectively

Outcome and results

• a consistent, accessible user experience across the content of multiple Victorian government organisations
• a single framework that satisfies the requirements of numerous departments and entities
• content that helps Victorians achieve their objectives
• a digital-first approach to government information

Single Digital Presence design process