Consumer.

Overview

Consumer NZ is an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to getting New Zealanders a fairer deal.

The Consumer website will be re-platformed on a new CMS (Content Management System) in 2025. The digital experience team want to explore how to improve the IA (information architecture) of the website to improve content discoverability and site navigation leading to increased user engagement.

At present the structure of the IA is currently non-existent for research content. There are around 2000 'articles', and only a small percentage are accessible via 'topic pages' or the menu.

The current CMS is restrictive, and content is flat (there is no vertical hierarchy), meaning it is difficult to group in an effective and efficient manner that enables discoverability for users - particularly in the case of 'research' content.

Research

Initial research was done to better understand the current website and it’s problems. It consisted of:
‍
| website comparison
| content audit
| stakeholder interviews
| card sort
| usability test on existing website

Design Outcome

Post analysis of all of our research combined, we were able to derive a link between the needs of the users and stakeholders.

This allowed us to lay a foundation for the design solution and focus on a few key areas to improve the information architecture of the website.

| Navigation menu
| Search bar navigation
| Home page content layout
| Tagging  
| Discoverability

Refined Search Page

Improved the efficiency of the content on Search Pages by restructuring and adding new elements.

Content hierarchy on home page

Improved clarity through content hierarchy

Introduced breadcrumbs

Our Users enter from various links/pages, we have adopted breadcrumbs to keep them updated regardless of which page they land on.

Proposed tagging system

Improved content discoverability through tagging and related content