Australian government entry point to get facelift

In a request for tender issued yesterday, the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) said: "The vision for the redeveloped Web site is to provide a user experience that is informative, colourful, visually interesting and intuitive. It should present an image of the Australian Government as a leader and innovator in electronic government whilst also adhering to best practice in usability and accessibility".

Consultants looking to provide AGIMO with a new design will need to conduct "a heuristic and/or expert usability review" of the site, as well as the relationship from a user perspective between www.australia.gov.au and other "whole of government" sites such as www.publications.gov.au, www.directory.gov.au and www.gov.au. Any new graphic design for the site will need to "be arrived at by user centred design processes and be usability tested".

Previous iterations of the site met with criticism from online usability think tank Nielsen Norman back in 2002. However, the site has changed substantially since that time. The project is scheduled for completion by 6 May 2005, with the closing date for submissions to AGIMO falling on 15 March.