Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation - Development

Our Client

Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation is a not-for-profit youth group organisation established to protect and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in the ACT. From birth to adulthood, Gugan Gulwan aims to provide them with support systems and an extensive range of programs to help them achieve success.

Some of their amazing programs offer support for issues including drugs and alcohol, mental health, child & family support, and a reconnecting program. They also have programs that focus on helping young people develop essential skills that will help them throughout their life. Gugan Gulwan finds ways to create opportunities for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and has their voices heard among the community and government.

Their Challenge

Gugan Gulwan’s previous website was not engaging their audience of Indigenous Australians. It didn’t contain the right brand language, nor did it convey what the organisation has to offer. Users were having a bad experience using the site, like finding a lack of content as well as experiencing difficulty finding pages they were searching for. The website wasn’t well suited to their current needs. Gugan Gulwan also had many amazing images that they were looking to include in the website but were unsure of how to do so. The main challenge was to engage their audience, educate them and increase interest and participation rates of their programs.

Our Approach

Client Relations

We worked closely with stakeholders from Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation to ensure we understood their requirements with a comprehensive requirement gathering document
We took time to understand their aims, target audience, and needs of their community
We worked with the client to understand their concerns and style preferences for the new site design
Throughout the project we openly communicated with stakeholders, offering regular project management updates

Website Features

Custom Design and Branding

To improve the branding, we designed a new website that was more suited to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community youth, with a consistent look throughout the pages
The design of the new website has a more balanced approach, appealing to the youth and their families through a simple and modern design
We used a dark background with pops of colour coming from the vibrant photos provided by the client, plus contrasting orange and white text

User Interface Design (UI)

As they had previously used a template to create their website, our solution was to create a new website from scratch with an improved UI design that incorporated their branding
We created a new UI design based on the updated branding, content, and images provided by the client to express their mission to “Engage, Participate, and Grow”
The new content structure allows for a way to reach out to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, practically designed to improve engagement
We clearly defined their programs and services with a new approach to the content

User Experience Development (UX)

We restructured their content, separating Programs, Events and Services into different page categories
Integration of the programs calendar on the website shows the audience all the upcoming events at a glance
We implemented a comprehensive, user-friendly online form for the audience to register their interest in different programs
So that Gugan Gulwan can reach their audience, we integrated a newsletter subscription
We created an interactive flipbook to showcase information about the organisation’s long term strategic plan
Their website is appropriately optimised for access through mobile phones, tablets and other smart devices
We integrated the custom theme with WordPress so that administrators at Gugan Gulwan can easily update the content and images

Using Photography

To incorporate the client’s photos within the website, we made sure that the UI design would accommodate the inclusion of numerous photos
This gives a robust visual portrayal of Gugan Gulwan’s work, which appeals to their visually-oriented target audience
We constructed the website to centre around these photos and found a variety of creative ways to use them throughout the website in an engaging manner
To increase user engagement, we implemented a design feature where the images to turn from black and white to colour upon mouse over

Increasing Audience Engagement

To further increase audience engagement, we worked with the client to include content and keywords that both represent the culture at Gugan Gulwan and effectively introduces their Aboriginal culture youth programs
Their new website reaches out to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community more effectively by appealing to them visually, with increased community engagement from a user-friendly and immersive UI design
We presented more information to the audience through the website in a more logical structure to gain more engagement through education

Our Solution

The Result

We highlighted different aspects of Gugan Gulwan’s organisation, improving website user experience and educating the audience more effectively about their programs
Our website increased visibility for their programs by 150%
We increased participation in programs through the new expression of interest contact form
The design style better reflects the work that Gugan Gulwan does as an NPO, effectively resonating with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth community

Project Handover

Like all of our clients, Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation received 2 months of website support after launching
This includes 24/7 monitoring of the website
We provide the client with training for website management to help them easily add new content to the website

Aboriginal Youth Centre in the ACT