Balancing a customer centric lens with a keen awareness of existing Government frameworks, guidelines and toolsets is key to delivering effective and efficient digital solutions for Government agencies.

There is a mis-informed belief that Government curated digital experiences can be staid, boring and ineffectual. Our experience of this sector has shown us the exact opposite – Government Agencies tend to be better trained in design thinking and agile production methodologies, making them more receptive to taking risks and trialling new technologies and approaches. They are highly user focussed and place an emphasis on user research and data and analysis to better inform their digital experience projects.

Deepend has been fortunate enough to leverage our history in digital experience and product development for a number Government Agencies. From Sitecore platform development for the NSW Government Architects Office, deep customer research and prototyping for the Bureau of Health Information, chatbot prototyping for the Department of Fair Trading, to being invited to a closed hackathon to perform platform ideation for the National Careers Institute.

Key to the effective delivery of these services and platforms has been a thorough understanding of the various tools, guides and frameworks that are essential to the Australian Governments Digital Service standard, as outlined by the Digital Transformation Agency.

Case Study - NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) is a subdivision of the Department of Communities and Justice and is responsible for the processing and publication of data regarding the performance of the Justice system in NSW. In line with their internal charter to become more consumer focused, they have been driving the development of a number of innovative interactive tools, allowing external users to interact with the data sets that they collate.

Case Study - NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation

Changing ingrained consumer behaviour is a difficult task at the best of times. Add frustration and dispute resolution to this equation and it becomes almost impossible. This is exactly the challenge the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation – Department of Fair Trading faced when trying to improve the performance of their online channels. Research had shown that despite their existing sites containing an abundance of well curated information about resolving common disputes, Consumers were pre-conditioned to try to call in to the Department of Fair Trading’s call centre. This placed undue stress on the Call Centre staff as they were tasked with dealing with an overwhelming volume of calls each day.

We partnered with DFSI to explore the use of Chatbot technology to better filter and direct users to pre-existing answers for commonly researched areas of dispute. For the prototype, we chose to focus on Rental Bond disputes between residential landlords and their tenants. Gleaning insights from a half day workshop with call centre staff and other key stakeholders, we rapidly set about building the chatbot prototype focussed on our specific topic. From developing the overarching conversational strategy, choosing the Facebook chatbot framework as our development platform and implementing a character and tone of voice across our conversation map, we developed the prototype end-to-end in 3 weeks.

NSW Fair Trading have now deployed the virtual assistant across six key topics, and have reduced call volumes by 7% to 10% a month. In 2019, over 42,000 chatbot sessions were initiated, 6,000 of which transitioned to live chat sessions with an agent, resulting in a potential reduction of 36,000 calls that year alone.

Case Study - Bureau of Health Information

The Bureau of Health Information (BHI) is a board-governed organisation that publishes independent reports and data about the performance of the NSW public healthcare system. Having begun with printed materials only, its output has grown organically to now provide filterable access to an extensive range of data online. This extension of their key outputs has seen both their analyst and publishing teams stretched, as they look to manage increasing demands from customers for more interactive data sets.

Deepend partned with BHI to assess both the internal mechanics of managing such interactive data sets, and also the specific wishes of key end user groups. Conducting a range of qualitative and quantitative research, we ideated a future state solution that would meet the needs of user groups such as Media and Government, as well as addressed a high level strategy for restructuring the internal infrastructure to manage data storeage ongoing.

Case Study - NSW Government Architects Office

As the provider of key strategic design leadership in architecture, urban design and landscape architecture in NSW, the office of the Government Architect envisaged a web platform that would position them as a structural and design thought leader. Having just redeveloped their brand with branding agency Rodeo, the site needed to include a number of contemporary design elements, whilst still conforming with the build standards of a Government agency web platform.

Undertaking a highly collaborative design process, we sought to bring the brand to life through a series of interactive wireframes, informing the front-end template build. The site exits as part of a multi-tenant solution, as part of the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, but delivers a far more contemporary look and feel. As part of the NSW Government Sitecore framework, it also had to incorporate a number of highly customised automations with regards to page approvals and publishing.