Australian Space Agency

Background

The Australian Space Agency is at the heart of space in Australia, operating as a division of the Australian Government. It works across industry, government and academia to advance the nation's position in the global space economy and to inspire and improve the lives of Australians.

Prior to Icon’s involvement, the Australian Space Agency’s web presence was integrated into an existing government department website. Icon was commissioned to design and develop a standalone site for the Agency that would enable a more rich and immersive user experience.

Discovery

To further understand the sector, business and user needs, Icon conducted a series of discovery workshops with stakeholders, a landscape review of similar websites, a content audit and an analysis of user data. This allowed us to identify key issues, opportunities and strategic goals and to understand the diverse needs of different audience segments.

The Agency had reached a new phase in which it sought to grow audience awareness and expand its capabilities. Having the Agency’s web pages embedded into their departmental website was restricting the overall user experience and limited their ability to express their brand and meet their strategic goals.

Our solution needed to:

• Drive awareness of the Agency and convey the excitement of space exploration
• Highlight regulatory information, funding opportunities and educational programs
• Showcase responsible growth and sustainable management in the sector
• Demonstrate how space exploration benefits all Australians through technological development, jobs growth and a globally recognised space industry.
• Offer clear pathways and engaging content for its national and global audiences as well as the nation's future workforce.

Solution

To meet the key objectives of the Agency, we delivered a dynamic, interactive online experience with a strong brand presence and clear signposts for each audience segment.

The new user interface uses innovative design features and dynamic content to draw users in, encourage return visits and convey the excitement surrounding the space industry whilst still remaining accessible and functional, especially for industry users.

As the designer on this project, I explored new ways to extend and apply the Agency’s visual identity to work better within a digital realm and appeal to its 6 distinct audiences ranging from primary school students to scientists.

I introduced a dark-mode theme that incorporated subtle gradients, overlaying orbital lines and graphics to frame content, complement the rich, emotive imagery and create an immersive ‘outer-space’ experience.

I worked with the developer to incorporate subtle micro-interactions and smooth parallax transitions between pages and sections to improve the fluidity of journeys across the site and provide more intuitive interactions.

From a content perspective, a critical task was to design a holistic IA that structured the information for audiences to support not just functional content findability but meaningful user journeys that are more fluent, cohesive and satisfying. Uplifting and enriching the space career and education user journey is a key example of this.

We built out a well-structured journey with narrative depth and breadth to provide ample inspiration for this future workforce that went beyond just offering functional career and study pathway information.

The Australian Space Agency website received a Web Excellence Award in January 2024 and the Drupal South Splash Award for Design/UX in March 2024.

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