GeoInsight – A Simple, Curated Way to Engage with Geoscience

Geoscience Australia has an extraordinary depth of information and data - but even for the scientifically and technically proficient, finding and using it can be complicated and challenging. Geoscience Australia traditionally delivered technical data for technical users. This makes it difficult for people without technical or specific scientific expertise to use our tools, data, and information – the full utility and benefit for government, industry and the public is not being realised. Our mission: Design a simple, accessible digital experience that provides curated geoscience information as a starting point for the general public - triaging to other resources for in-depth detail.

GeoInsight is a region-based spatial exploration tool leveraging data-visualisation and comprehensive insights to help everyday Australians start, understand, and continue engaging with geoscience information. GeoInsight was Informed by 8 weeks of research using high fidelity prototypes to test a new vision for communicating region-specific geoscience information. We leveraged capabilities, data and expertise of the team before testing with existing users from government, industry and academia – understanding their primary interactions with the tool and how to best facilitate them. This work supported a shift from a complex and technical approach to a refined spatial exploration and triaging tool, accessible to all.

Scientists: Geoscience information is no longer divided across multiple disparate layers, GeoInsight’s region-based insights and data helps them complete common tasks simply. Decision makers: Politicians, researchers, developers, and academics have a place to get broad, but concise geoscience information to quickly and confidently inform decisions. The organisation: GeoInsight is held up as an exemplar project within GA, led by an HCD approach. Engaging customers throughout the process helped create confidence that we were doing the science justice and supporting real customer needs which helped stoke internal momentum. Our co-created roadmap will see the first release of GeoInsight in late 2024.

There are several key components to the GeoInsight experience. New searches start with a simple query builder, helping users quickly select a geographic region and data area(s) of interest including minerals, mining, water and infrastructure. They are then taken to a curated map of the region, a side panel containing regional and topic-based insights, and available layers to explore. Simplified exports including raw-data and synthesised reports make GeoInsight’s information useful and digestible by all. Beyond the curated information, GeoInsight provides intuitive handovers that help users continue exploring other resources when further detail is needed. We tested GeoInsight with diverse users across Australia including scientists, policy makers, analysts, engineers and academics – here’s what they said... “I really like these regions. I just think that would be incredibly helpful...None of [the tools I currently use] are pick a region, pick a thing... none of them are like that…” “It’s a great initiative, it definitely makes the information digestible.” “It’s more intuitive. The Geoscience Portal - when you go into that, you need to know what you’re looking for. Everything [in GeoInsight] is smoother and nicely presented.” “This is enough for me. If I need more details, I would go on a different database.”