Accessible Telecoms, an initiative of ACCAN (Australian Communications Consumer Action Network), is Australia’s peak communications consumer organisation. Their free service guides elderly and disabled users to suitable mainstream and assistive telecommunication products.
The vision for the project
The Accessible Telecoms service provides vital, independent, and up-to-date information on telecommunications equipment suitable for people with disability and elderly users across Australia. The existing platform was due for a complete overhaul. The client’s core goal was to develop a new website that was user-friendly, intuitive, and accessible, specifically catering to the needs of these user groups.
This involved delivering a modern, responsive design and an intuitive content management system, with a non-negotiable compliance target: adherence to WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines. The dream was to be a trusted, efficient source of information, helping their community stay connected and make informed decisions.
The journey began with a Discovery phase to define the project’s success, establishing key Experience and Design Pillars: Helpful, Intuitive, Efficient, Optimised, and Aesthetically-pleasing. The Butterfly team implemented a WordPress CMS solution, focusing heavily on optimising the core features: the device and training search functionality and the custom front-end upload interface for project officers.
The process
A key technical hurdle was replacing the client’s old, complex, desktop-based validator/uploader system. Butterfly engineered a new, user-friendly frontend interface within the WordPress CMS, allowing administrators to upload new device and training details directly. This streamlined the maintenance process significantly.
Feedback from Accessible Telecoms’ Advisory Committee and wireframe reviews guided crucial design decisions, such as refining the search logic to allow multi-word and filtered searches, and moving the keyword search to a more intuitive position. Another innovative solution implemented was leveraging the browser’s native print feature to automatically generate accessible Device PDF Exports, ensuring the content was always synchronous with the live website and reducing manual maintenance.
The outcome
The website redevelopment successfully delivered a modern, WCAG 2.2 AA compliant platform, creating an easy-to-use and intuitive experience for all visitors across all devices.
The project completion on 5 August 2024 marked a crucial milestone, providing Accessible Telecoms with a robust, future-proof platform to continue their vital service. The complexity of engineering the custom device/training search and ensuring the high level of accessibility compliance led to a time extension to 5 ½ months (up from the estimated 5 months), demonstrating Butterfly’s commitment to quality over simply hitting a deadline. While the estimated project budget was $95,830, the final internal cost to Butterfly was $156,242 due to scope complexity and delays. The project retro identified that Development for the device/training search and Quality Assurance were the areas with the highest effort overrun.
