Gambling Help
Online website.

Working with the exceptional team at Flint in 2022 for their client, Turning Point—a leading addiction research and treatment centre - we embarked on a comprehensive redesign, rewrite, rebuild, and relaunch (essentially all the 're's) of the Gambling Help Online (GHO) website.

GHO serves as a national online platform that offers Australians affected by gambling access to counselling and information services. It refers individuals to treatment options in their vicinity or provides online services for those unable or hesitant to seek face-to-face consultations locally.

Funded collaboratively by the pertinent state and territory departments, this project was genuinely a collaborative endeavour. Throughout its execution, I engaged with approximately 30 collaborators from Turning Point and various state government departments, as well as 12 GHO clients.

The GHO site was overdue for an upgrade, having not undergone a major rebuild in 6 years. While it broadly fulfilled its purpose, there were numerous opportunities to enhance the user experience, modernise the platform, and expand its range of functionality.

A central hurdle in the project was ensuring all the stakeholders, including clients, had their say. Sifting through a myriad of possibilities and requirements demanded a cohesive and determined approach.

Below is the high level process I led:

• Kickoff and discovery.
• Develop and sign-off on a set of key objectives.
• Internal workshops to uncover gaps and opportunites.
• User interviews.
• Synthesis of all inputs.
• Development of an I.A.
• Wireframes for key pages.
• Alignment and buy-in for proposed solution.
• Initial design process.
• Content planning.
• Build an interactive prototype.
• User testing.
• Role out full UI designs.
• Full project documentation, presentation and approval.
• Handover to all relevant teams.

In regard to managing stakeholders, this was one of the most intricate projects I've led. We were tasked with finding a solution that considered the expectations and requirements of eight distinct state and territory departments. It also had to align with Turning Point's internal objectives and deliver tangible benefits to the end clients.

To me, decision hygiene is critical in these processes. In this instance, it involved breaking down goals and objectives and aligning them in the problem space. We separated issues where possible, ensuring broad stakeholder understanding of all aspects, getting comprehensive feedback, building consensus, and shaping nuanced solutions.

Open forum conversations, while crucial for engagement, understanding, and refining potential solutions, aren't always the best way to reach a final resolution involving all parties.

In the end, I worked to define a clear set of items to be resolved and led conversations that addressed the nuances of each area, gathering initial requirements and positions. These were then structured into internal surveys with accompanying support documentation, which all jurisdiction teams answered.

The final solutions were subsequently presented, with the survey results bolstering the rationale for the approaches we advocated. This approach proved essential in reaching a final outcome with broad buy-in, in a reasonable timeframe.

Addressing gambling concerns can already be overwhelming, and the last thing individuals need is added complexity from a support platform.
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With this empathy at its core, the site is easy to navigate, regardless of a client's entry point or preferred way of navigating. It offers the option to personalise content to align closely with their needs, location, and where they are in their recovery journey.

The result is a website that's warm and inviting, filled with relevant information and tangible steps individuals can take—with or without the direct guidance of counsellors—to try to improve their situation.

The personalisation/triaging strategy we implemented aimed to balance the nuances of a client’s journey with the overhead and complexity of managing the additional content that personalisation requires.

The site serves three main audiences: those who gamble, their loved ones, and professionals. After discussions with experts, we chose to align the journeys of all three with those who gamble. The site offers an optional, simple four-part survey that directs users straight to the relevant section or to the online chat facility, while capturing data that influences personalisation across the site, including content recommendations and contextual information.

The site also uses various triggers to shape personalisation if clients choose not to use the survey.