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Two people in a rural setting, discussing the land

Landcare Victoria needed to use digital services to strengthen the Landcare community.

With a history going back 30 years, the Landcare name is part of the fabric of many regional towns. There are 60,000 Landcare members across Victoria, including many farmers with large private properties.

After winning a competitive tender to build out a new online presence for Landcare, it became clear they needed much more than a new website – they required a platform that not only improved communication, but strengthened the ability of people within the community to perform their jobs.

A top-down view of a researcher from Today and a research participant. They're on a couch, testing a mobile phone prototype.
A representative of Landcare addresses the research team. He's gesturing toward the land.

User research sessions seek to build empathy with the people who ultimately have to use the digital service we're designing. They allow the design team to better understand people's needs, motivation, hopes, and aspirations – but also present a great opportunity to bounce around ideas that might improve the service.

Approach

A membership of 60,000 requires a unique approach to community consultation. In order to create a solution that met the needs of such a large community, we utilised a number of research and co-design methods to map knowledge and insight, and to generate new ideas.

We travelled 1,163 kilometres, visiting 15 regional Victorian towns and involving 195 people in one-on-one interviews, stakeholder workshops, online surveys, prototype testing and design testing.

A researcher from Today sharing a laugh with a research participant, while they're sitting on a couch

Low fidelity prototypes were used to mediate knowledge and gather new ideas from Landcare members. These prototypes were iterated to medium fidelity before undergoing more formal UX testing and further iteration.

A research participant testing a smartphone prototype, on a bench, outdoors
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An on-site project space allowed the design team to collaborate with stakeholders, and to share work in progress. These photographs show some of the team's printouts during the best practice review, as well as many different, early, exploratory variations on the website's wireframes. It's also worth noting the post-it note commentary from different stakeholders, encouraged throughout the process. 

Partnering with stakeholders

We implemented two, key stakeholder activities: a community ‘champion’ group and a dedicated, on-site project room. The champion group featured representative members from the Landcare community, meeting weekly to make decisions and monitor community involvement.

The project room was a dedicated space where progress was shared constantly on the surrounding walls. This allowed the design team to collaborate with the champion group while the work was being done.

The Landcare website on a smartphone and on an iPad, on an orange background
A cropped photograph of the Landcare website, on an iPad, on an light blue background
Three people standing in a rural setting, discussing the land

Outcome

The online community continues to grow, actively encouraging collaboration between Landcare groups.