A comprehensive understanding of the state of Australia’s environment underpins policy and drives action. This is achieved through national state of the environment reporting – an internationally recognised approach to assessing changes in all aspects of our environment. Biotext has been a strategic partner throughout the intensive process of developing and producing this critical national report.
We worked with subject matter experts, First Nations co-authors and advisers, and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to plan, shape, write, edit and design content for the 2021, 2016 and 2011 reports. Each report aims to convey clear messaging as well as in-depth analysis across all aspects of the environment, with separate reports examining air quality, biodiversity, climate, coasts, extreme events, heritage, Indigenous, inland water, land, marine, urban and Antarctica.
Our work on the 2021 report included the development of content strategy to support the shift to a primarily web-based report – the 2021 website won the Best in Show for Content at the 2023 Australian Web Awards.
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The 2021 State of the Environment report website exemplifies the best-practice presentation of complex content, demonstrating how a website can present scientific content in an engaging way to meet the needs of several audiences.
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It also demonstrates the success of a collaborative and agile approach between government, environmental, content and web experts. The team – with the department, authors, Biotext and EY Digital – developed clear content and effective information design to meet government, industry, research and community needs.
– 2023 Australian Web Awards
Our role
- Content strategy
- Information architecture
- Content audit and analysis
- Content design and structure
- Technical writing and synthesis
- Copyediting and proofreading
- Summaries
- Accessibility and findability
- Work with subject matter experts
- Information design
- Infographics
- Data visualisation
- Document design and layout
Our solution for the 2021 report
Our discovery and strategy phase involved working with the department and authors to understand their goals for the website and their requirements for an effective workflow. We developed a content strategy to articulate the aims of the content, principles to guide consistent content development, and clear processes and workflow for quality control.
Our content development phase involved leading the collaborative authoring process for each topic of the report. Most topics had a team of authors made of up scientists and First Nations representatives. We refined structure, clarity and flow through many revisions with authors and expert reviews. This rigorous process involved checking scientific accuracy and consistency of messaging. We worked closely with First Nations authors to ensure their contributions were represented in the report in a culturally safe way. A key process was layering content to meet the information needs of many audiences – from government decision-makers to environmental managers, researchers, teachers, community groups, and the general public.
The reports included rigorous referencing to ensure credibility. We developed a new referencing system to respectfully cite First Nations knowledge alongside peer-reviewed scientific information.
Our visual design phase included collaborating with Moogie Down Productions to create a Country-centred logo and graphic elements for the website. We created 900 technical figures based on datasets, including developing graphs from raw data and drawing or redrawing maps and diagrams.
One of the key deliverables for state of the environment reporting was infographics that capture the key messages of the report and engage a wider audience. Biotext worked with the chief authors of the report and the authors of each chapter to create a suite of high-impact infographics that emphasised the key messages and core scientific concepts of the report.
Our web preparation process involved optimising text and visuals for web-based formats. We worked with department, user experience and web development teams to develop an information architecture to support engagement and easy navigation, and ensured accessibility for various audiences. We established strict content migration processes to ensure content would easily migrate from the final drafting documents to the department’s content management system.
Outcomes
- Information architecture, text and graphics for the Australia, State of the environment 2021 website.
- Author management, editing and graphic design for the 2011 and 2016 Australia, State of the environment reports.