Description:

The opportunity

As New Zealand’s electricity regulator, the Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko works with the electricity sector to achieve Aotearoa’s commitment of net zero emissions by 2050 and a renewables-based electricity system by 2030.

The Electricity Authority governs, oversees and regulates Aotearoa’s electricity market. They are committed to building trust in the system and putting consumers front and centre of regulatory decisions.

The Electricity Authority’s website had grown extraordinarily over time. They wanted a new website to help their audiences better understand their role, functions and projects, including enabling a low emissions future. The Electricity Authority has an important educational role, and the new website provides the main platform to give industry tools and resources and inform the people of Aotearoa about our electricity system.

The approach

We unravelled a complex lattice of navigation that echoed siloed team structures and was a result of disjointed content generation, publishing and management. Through audits, workshops and testing, we took nine layers of navigation, 4,500 pages and 16,000 documents and whittled it down to the absolute necessary.

We presented the remaining content through simplistic, intuitive entry points. We grouped similar content types into logical structures and themes tailored to the needs, language and objectives of a complex industry and the audiences it served. This transformation replaced elaborate journeys that required learned behaviours to navigate with an accessible, intuitive and jargon-free experience.

Armed with a refreshed brand, we created a new design system for the website detailing typography, colours, components and page templates. We spent time understanding their strategic goals and created beautiful, bespoke design elements to bring their priority content to life through features such as Your meter and Projects.

With their brand refresh came a new tone of voice. We created a new content strategy alongside tone of voice and style guidelines. We empowered their passionate internal team with this new intent by shaping hero content pieces to evidence this new way of thinking.

Much of what the Electricity Authority does is advocate for and engage with stakeholders to shape market design and performance and improve consumer outcomes. The reimagined Projects section is now a brilliantly presented content hub where stakeholders can find and contribute to important workstreams to inform change and keep abreast of updates with ease and clarity.

The outcome

Our relationship with electricity and the climate is forever changing.

The Electricity Authority now has a modern and accessible digital platform to communicate and engage with the industry and the public. It will support the Authority in delivering its strategic ambitions now and in the years to come.

They can now clearly show the real intent, impact and evidence of their work to provide a competitive, reliable and efficient electricity market for the long-term benefit of consumers.