Project Overview
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) Smartraveller website is for Australians planning to travel, or already travelling or living, overseas. The purpose is to help Australians travel overseas safely, reduce their risks and avoid problems.
The Smartraveller website provides:
• official travel advisories for 177 destinations, with an advice level for each
• a subscription service, for updates to their travel advice
• general advice before you go, on a wide range of travel topics
• general advice for while you're away, especially when things go wrong overseas
• information about Australia's consular services
In collaboration between EY and DFAT, the new Smartraveller website delivers a simplified user experience that allows users coming to the website to access information easily and quickly.
The website also offers a free subscription service where users can opt-in to email to receive travel advice. Users can also subscribe for critical updates to travel advisories by providing the phone number of the mobile you are travelling with. These will be sent when DFAT considers there is a major incident or crisis that might impact many Australians.
Project Commissioner
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Project Creator
Team
DFAT
Smartraveller Team
EY
Andy Duncan - Project lead
Arvind Venkataraman - Project Director
Isaac Townsend - Lead Technical Developer
Vishal Sahody - Lead UX Developer
Kevin Jiang - Technical Developer
Ian Laslett - Director
Project Brief
EY was engaged to redesign and redevelop the Smartraveller website. The old website had become outdated and the underlying software was unsupported. This presented an opportunity for the Smartraveller team to re-imagine a tired site and to shift to the govCMS SaaS Drupal 8 platform.
The subscriptions service brief was to create a system that was secure and required minimum user data that allowed for a fast subscription process. The new subscription service required a bespoke solution that was integrated into the GovCMS platform. The solution would allow the Smartraveller to publish communications via the GovCMS platform that could also be sent out through email and SMS to travelling Australians to stay prepared and informed prior and during travel.
Project Need
Smartraveller is responsible for providing Australians with travel advice for 177 destinations. Australians rely on this advice to inform their travel experience, as global events occur such as the outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Australians rely heavily on the Smartraveller platform to be informed and prepared.
The previous platform was not meeting users’ needs for travel information. The website required a refresh to deliver Australians travel advice and allow travellers to be prepared and supported while overseas.
There was also a shift from the previous registration system to a subscription system. The old system had become cumbersome and provided a barrier to users who were required to go through a lengthy registration process. There was a need to introduce a system that required minimal user information that enabled the Smartraveller team to communicate with Australians. The subscription service enables Smartraveller to send out communication to Australians about destination information, news updates or a consolidated email with updates within a 24 hours period. In the event of a crisis, Smartraveller can send SMS’s to Australians.
To further support Australians when a crisis occurs a crisis escalation process has been built into the website. This allows the Smartraveller team to enable a takeover of the website to provide advice for travellers and concerned relatives and friends and allow Australians to register their details.
User Experience
The Smartraveller website focus for an optimal user experience was built around the travel experience. Preparing Australians prior to travel and to keep them updated while travelling was crucial for the platform to ensure Australians travel safely.
The platform also needed to support users in a crisis while overseas. The new website needed to support users who may be in moments of extreme stress. By keeping a focus on the stress case, meant keeping the experience as straight forward as possible which helps not just people in crisis but all users.
The redevelopment project went through several rounds of user testing beginning at the information architecture (IA) level. The IA testing informed the structure which was developed around supporting Australians before travelling, while travelling and providing destination specific information. This simple and efficient structure is supported by a site search. This allows users to multiple pathways to access information efficiently.
The alpha build which was tested with users in live sessions allowed the team to unearth improvements that were incorporated into the final website. This ensured the final website was proven with users.
SEO optimisation was performed during the development of content and the website to ensure information was discoverable via search engines.
Lastly, the website has been approved by Vision Australia to meet WCAG AA 2.1 accessibility. The Smartraveller website provides all users with a website that is accessible, secure and a user validated platform that delivers timely information.
Project Marketing
The redesigned and redeveloped website has coincided with a Smartraveller campaign which has involved social media promotions, competitions and television advertisements.
Since the launch, the website has had an increase of 500k users from the same period the year before and 19 million plus page views. The website has sent out a million plus emails to subscribed users and SMS to subscribed users during the New Zealand Volcano crisis.
Project Privacy
It was of the highest importance that the Smartraveller website had adequate security controls in place appropriate to the required security classification.
The Smartraveller website required to undergo extensive penetration testing to ensure the site was stable, secure and user information is safe.
Digital - Government Services
The provision of timely government services has been transformed as applications and sites are developed and implemented to either replace or complement previous methods. Be it the delivery of current and up to date critical information, compliance, community support and engagement, notification and registration or providing greater accessibility to government resources.
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