ProcurePoint is a key information resource for NSW Government procurement. It attracts more than 1.3m page views annually from government buyers and suppliers. While it is a useful resource, we also know from the 2,500 monthly enquiries to the NSW Procurement Service Centre, there are many simple enquiries that could be answered by the website. Answering these questions through the site can free up support staff to focus on more complex enquiries.
So, for the last few months we've been working through the initial stages of the redevelopment of ProcurePoint. As these stages are coming to a close, it's the perfect time to share an update on our progress. We are also excited to share that we are making use of the new Digital Design System.
What we've done so far
In partnership with our customer experience design agency, we followed this four-step process of discovery and alpha prototyping.
- Form hypotheses - here we engaged with pre-existing materials and conducted user research to understand our users and their tasks.
- Propose and test solutions - in a series of design sprints, we looked at different site components and tested the site structure and prototypes with our users.
- Decide - here we agreed on the scope, site structure, wireframes and content components we needed for the new site.
- Design production - we created site designs, agreed upon the design system and prepared for development.
Who we spoke to
To create a site that meets user needs we engaged broadly with NSW Government buyers from more than 40 different government agencies, plus a range of suppliers from different business categories.
Our engagement included surveys, testing the site, interviews and prototype testing sessions.
What we've learned
Here are some highlights, validated through research, that are informing our approach to prototype design and usability testing.
1. Our site structure should focus on buyers
Current traffic is 95 per cent procurement professionals, five per cent suppliers. The current homepage however gives both groups equal attention from the prominent main navigation options.
2. Every content item should be categorised
ProcurePoint has a lot of content, and not all of it is relevant to each user. So, moving forward, each piece of content will be categorised within a site-wide taxonomy that includes:
- the category of procurement (e.g. ICT, construction)
- the stage of procurement (plan, source, manage)
- the value of the procurement the content relates to (e.g. less than $5,000, more than $10M).
3. Search should use taxonomy to surface results intelligently
If a user enters 'digital whiteboard' into search, rather than delivering all the pages where the words 'digital whiteboard' appear, the search 'knows' that digital whiteboard is an ICT purchase of less than $5,000. So it delivers results that relate to just that, grouped meaningfully by the content type: policy, tools and templates, schemes and contracts, training etc.
An example of this in practice is the music site Pitchfork, which displays search results by content type: albums, reviews, videos etc. On ProcurePoint a category page - or a search results page - could present relevant content in a similar way.
4. Primary content should be housed in libraries
When exploring the concept of a policy library we were able to validate the idea of organising other key content within similar dynamic library style sections.
These libraries include:
- policy
- tools and templates
- schemes and contracts
- training.
Then on category pages, and through search results, the relevant content from each library can be displayed section by section.
What's next
Now that we're moving into beta, we are making use of the Digital Design System guides and components to help us build the new site.
Our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a dynamic policy library that includes all relevant policy with our taxonomy. We plan to share this in a private beta with key users in coming months.
The current ProcurePoint site will of course remain updated and available for the foreseeable future.
If you have any feedback or you would like to volunteer for usability research of the beta site you can email us at nswbuy@finance.nsw.gov.au.