Development team (L-R): Le Ma, Damian Fogels, Sanlin Xu, Astrid Farmer, Ashok Tudi, Kalinga Hulugalle, Khoa Ly, Anthony Lewis

The new look Parliament of Australia website was launched on 1 August 2016. The new design is intended to improve access to the work of the Parliament and make it easier for the public to engage with content. The website refresh achieved this through:

• improvements to the homepage layout and navigation
• new functionality allowing subscribers to follow items of interest, and
• better use of modern technologies, including increased compatibility with mobile devices.

Feedback received from the public and over 160 website publishers across the four parliamentary departments was used to inform the re-design. DPS Director of Mobile and Web Applications, Craig Marshall noted ‘the APH website is shared and governed by all the parliamentary departments, the key to a successful re-design was dependent on the goodwill and enthusiasm of all stakeholders. It was pleasing to see this evident throughout the agile development process, I believe this was the foundation of a successful outcome.’

Many members of the public have provided positive feedback on the new and improved site:

‘…thanks to the team for listening to user feedback—and for a pleasing visual design…(it’s) easy to navigate, easier to find bills now.’

DPS Assistant Director, Anthony Lewis says ‘the APH website now features within the top 1,000 most popular websites in Australia (998th) and is the 19th most visited Australian government website.’

Strong engagement with the community and key stakeholders from across the parliamentary departments led to a successful outcome—it’s now the people’s website, complementing the people’s house.