Health Justice Australia; Knowledge Hub

People rarely experience problems in neat ways, and people may be held in disadvantage by complex, intersecting needs. When left unaddressed, legal problems – like mouldy public housing – can lead to health and wellbeing issues – such as respiratory infections and anxiety. Yet our services are structured to address issues as though they’re isolated and distinct. Through research, partnership and capacity building, and strategic advocacy, HJA creates opportunities for systems change. With ambition to re-position as a knowledge hub, HJA needed to take a holistic view of the organisation and ecosystem surrounding it, clarifying their offers in alignment with diverse audience needs.

Folk worked alongside the HJA team and their audiences to re-think and re-position the organisation as a ‘Knowledge Hub’. Redesigning their website was one part of a broader focus on service design, forming HJA’s ‘digital front door’. Folk supported HJA in defining their full ecosystem of offers, and the tools, processes and capabilities that enable service delivery. We spoke with practitioners, funders, and researchers to inform how best HJA could meet the needs of the sector and their audiences. Efforts were focused on clarifying what HJA does, who and how they help, through UX research, visual design, and content principles.

In working with HJA to establish, maintain, and scale the organisation as a knowledge hub, Folk helped build understanding in HJA’s work, and the broader impact of addressing system silos. By making complex impact areas easier to engage with, sector practitioners, funders, partners, researchers and thought-leaders can access evidence that supports service collaboration in funding applications. They can upskill, build capacity and establish partnerships through HJA’s training offers. They can advocate for reforms in policy settings, service design and funding. In these ways, HJA enables services to better meet the needs of people experiencing multiple, intersecting health and legal needs.

Folk took a ground-up approach to understanding the organisation, speaking with internal and external stakeholders to dig into perspectives of HJA and challenges across the health and legal sectors. This informed a clear picture of the diversity of services, platforms and touchpoints surrounding HJA. Complementing qualitative research, Folk examined web analytics and online search behaviours of HJA’s audiences, giving a strong steer for what people were looking for, nationally and internationally. Through strategic planning, Folk identified gaps between HJA’s current state and where they want to be. Folk created a roadmap for scaling impact, how offers develop over time, how HJA’s capabilities need to grow, and addressing user needs throughout systemic changes. A starting point for re-positioning was developing a new website as a ‘digital front door’ for users to engage with HJA. Folk refreshed the HJA brand to reflect organisation values, build trust, and bring simplicity to complexity. Working closely with development partner Smokee, the brand came to life through intentional interactions and experience principles that reflect research insights. Folk’s activities included: •User and stakeholder research •Ecosystem mapping •Experience and journey mapping •User archetype development •Information Architecture definition •UX/UI design concepts •Content principles and governance •Brand identity evolution