NSW Food Authority

The NSW Food Authority engaged Morpht to refresh the designs, redevelop and migrate the content of its website to GovCMS. We couldn't just do that. We restructured the information architecture, ingested 5 different feeds, integrated with third-party systems to surface timely and structured information that is easy to search and find.

In 2024 Morpht was engaged to migrate the site to the NSW design system.

Morpht's digital experience team crafted a design solution tailored to the client's needs by leveraging the components from the NSW design system. Using Figma prototypes to provide the client with a realistic preview of the new site theme before development began. Maintaining the site's existing structure and functionality, the team successfully applied the NSW design system to the front-end theme. 

Understanding the architecture of the site, how many content types and how they relate to each other was an essential first step. We created automated scripts to extract the content and pages from 4 different sources:

• site database
• image server
• external systems housing penalty notices
• prosecution notice register 

After extracting all the content, we reviewed and defined a set of content types and how they relate to each. We developed a content model to structure the information and display it in different modes and layouts. Some of the content types we defined were:

• 4 news types e.g. media releases, recalls, advisories, etc
• 8 resource types e.g. factsheets, guides, policies, etc
• Third party auditor
• Training organisation
• Penalty notice
• Prosecution notice

An organisation such as NSW Food Authority with its broad oversight and responsibility for ensuring food safety needs a multitude of ways to consume and export data feeds. We created a variety of registers that consume and export XML data feeds that are searchable, filterable and sortable to improve the user experience.  Here are a few examples

• Register of Penalty Notices
• Prosecution notices
• Approved 3rd Party auditor
• Training organisations

To support NSW Food Authority’s education focus we integrated interactive tools for consumers to understand food labelling and for startup businesses to learn about their food safety requirements and obligations.

A recent addition to the site is an application that consumes an external data feed about the safety and status of shellfish harvest areas. The application pulls in updates for the data feed, indexes them and surfaces the data on the site. Users can then filter and search through the feed for their relevant harvest area.

The four principal aims for the design refresh. Sure! Easy. And why wouldn’t it be?

We kick-started it by implementing our bespoke Drupal Distribution for GovCMS - Convivial. This is a cost-effective and timesaving solution.  We adopted the NSW Design System and adapted Convivial to take on the relevant components and design patterns. This got us a long way towards reworking the existing content structures into new patterns and components. With this system in place, NSW Food Authority has at its fingertips the capability to build a variety of page layouts. 

Our visual design approach focused on improving the user interface by simplifying layouts while being faithful to the brand guidelines and to the design system. Our aim was to drive up the usability of the site to help users discover relevant information on any device in the most straightforward way.