Geoscience Australia

Unlocking the potential of Australia’s earth science and data.

In partnership with Geoscience Australia

Yesterday

Geoscience Australia is a federal agency responsible for Australia’s earth and climate science. They offer vast resources, for everything from the data that powers Google Maps to charting sea level rise. But these resources have been hard to find, understand, and use.

Today undertook a program of design research with government stakeholders, scientists, educators, and citizens to understand how people wanted and needed to access and use these valuable resources.

Using an iterative and agile design approach, Today engaged both internally with employees and externally with users to develop the project and build capability along the way. We unpacked multilayered insights across the complex user ecosystem by using a universal design approach and developed these into clear guiding principles.

We designed a strategic framework to distil down the core value, and enable organisation-wide transformation. The final recommendations span six departments, giving clear direction for Geoscience Australia to move forward with purpose.

To complete the transformation, we co-created a digital strategy to inform the design and build of a component-based design system that gives GA all the ingredients they need to deliver consistently great digital experiences. Digital Earth Australia is the first of many experiences that can be rolled out with our flexible design systems, offering simplicity, accessibility, ease-of-use, and the ability to get started with their data.

The design system using storybook is good, and it's really great to see the use of headless technology in the public sector as a means to enable ongoing iteration to continually improve in a more efficient and affordable way.
Good Design Awards Jury

Tomorrow

Through the organisational strategy, we’ve made it easier for scientists, businesses, and citizens to get to Geoscience Australia resources, understand how to use the data, and get on with the projects they’re invested in to make new and wonderful things.

Investing in a design system is a smart use of public money: rather than reinventing the wheel for each new digital project, they now have a practical toolkit to piece together high quality experiences themselves.