Glenorchy City Council serves one of Tasmania’s most diverse municipalities, from riverside suburbs to bushland reserves.
Their site has been rebuilt to put local services within easy reach of every resident, and give users a sense of place and optimism that reflects the community itself.
Bold and accessible, making finding and using council services intuitively straightforward.
Project Overview
Glenorchy City Council needed a website that worked as hard as its residents do. With services spanning everything from rates and permits to community facilities and local events, the challenge wasn’t just organising information — it was making sure people could actually find and act on it, wherever they were on the site.
We started with the site’s structure itself, auditing the existing information architecture and reorganising it from a resident-first perspective, rather than around internal council departments. From there, we built the new site around three priorities: easy access to services, a strong sense of place, and a tone of optimism that reflects the direction the council and community are heading.
Accessibility shaped every decision throughout the process, with the site supporting multiple languages, ensuring Glenorchy’s diverse community can access services in the way that works best for them.
Key Features
Resident-first information architecture: We audited the site’s entire structure and reorganised it around how residents actually think about council services, making the path from question to answer far shorter.
A persistent actions tab: No matter where someone lands on the site, a consistent actions tab keeps key services like paying rates, reporting an issue, or booking a facility always one click away.
AI-powered search: Rather than relying on residents to guess the right keyword or menu path, AI-driven search helps people find the service they need just by describing what they’re after in their own words.
An authentic sense of place: Prominent local imagery and interactive maps help residents locate facilities and services geographically, replacing generic stock photography with real depictions of Glenorchy’s people, places, and events.
A bold, confident brand expression: We fully embraced the City of Glenorchy’s style guide, giving the site a distinctive, optimistic visual identity that stands apart from typical council websites.
Accessible and inclusive by design: Built with accessibility as a foundation, the site supports multiple languages and uses clear, plain-English content throughout – rewriting complex council information like rates and providing a glossary of terms so every resident can understand and act on it.