Client
Rural Industries R&D Corporation
What we did
Australia lags behind many countries in using bioenergy (energy from plant material) as an alternative to fossil-fuel-based energy.
In 2012, on behalf of the Rural Industries R&D Corporation, we conducted research (a survey and in-depth interviews) to help us understand:
- the perceptions and concerns of people in primary industry in Australia
- what information they said they needed to be able to get involved in bioenergy
- how they liked to receive their information.
In response to our findings, in 2013 we were re-engaged to develop a knowledge portal which directs people to practical, credible information about:
- producing biomass that can be converted to energy
- getting into the bioenergy supply chain
- starting a bioenergy plant.
Biomass Producer is the result.
Our role included:
- managing the project to develop the knowledge portal
- engaging and briefing a design agency (we chose Design Royale, now Edelman)
- choosing the site name, tagline and domain name
- identifying the top tasks that the portal needed to support (from our survey and in-depth interviews)
- selecting and liaising with a group of six representative users to refine the top tasks, create the information architecture and test the usability of the portal
- creating the information architecture and reviewing wireframes
- sourcing content from credible sources, making sure all content supports a top task
- selecting and liaising with a content approval panel (6 members) to make sure all content is relevant and credible
- writing a short paragraph about each approved source, using web writing principles
- sourcing images
- developing case studies of operational bioenergy projects (field trips to Echuca, Victoria; Dalby, Queensland; Mackay, Queensland; and Gosford, Sydney) using text, video and photos
- publishing the content using WordPress
- testing the portal
- launching the portal at the Bioenergy Australia annual conference in November 2013.
In 2014, we were engaged to maintain the portal, and source and develop new content.