Role: Project Team Lead & UX Design Consultant
Client: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Duration: 52 weeks
URL: maps.utas.edu.au

Overview

I was the Telstra Purple Project team lead and Design consultant for the award winning, successful delivery of two custom major applications for the University of Tasmania:

1. UniMaps – a web-based, responsive mobile mapping app that enables students to find their way around UTAS campuses
2. UniNav – a web-based accessible, touch-screen kiosk version of UniMaps, deployed to physical kiosk devices around campus locations.

Delivery of these two applications involved complex stakeholder and technical environments, and integration of data from a number of different sources, all whilst ensuring a usable end-user experience for students, staff and academics, as well as a great customer experience for UTAS.

Situation

The University of Tasmania (UTAS), founded in 1890 and now spread across nine campuses in Tasmania, was facing major navigation challenges: students, staff, and visitors struggled to find buildings, classrooms, and amenities.

Existing solutions like printed maps, induction sessions, and on-site staff did little to improve the overall campus experience. This was causing confusion, anxiety, delays, and heavy reliance on staff support.

UTAS wanted to modernise and digitise the campus experience, aligning with its “smart campus” vision to make its spaces accessible, intuitive, and integrated with technology.

Task

UTAS set out to:

• Improve campus navigation and accessibility for students, staff, and visitors.
• Integrate spatial data and connect wayfinding with other digital tools (e.g., timetables, booking systems, mobile apps).
• Enhance user experience through intuitive, inclusive, and accessible design.
• Reduce frontline workload and support UTAS’s smart campus initiatives.

They engaged Telstra Purple (TP), Australia’s largest technology services company, to design and deliver a digital wayfinding solution.

As the TP project lead, my task was to build a relationship with the customer, put together a project team that could deliver the work to achieve the desired outcomes, and then deliver an exceptional outcome.

Action

To bring UTAS’s digital wayfinding vision to life, I led a human-centred, agile delivery team focused on collaboration, accessibility, and continuous improvement. Our team worked closely with UTAS stakeholders and end users to co-design, prototype, and implement the solution through iterative testing and feedback cycles.

Key actions included:

• Ideation and co-design: Facilitated collaborative sessions and workshops with students and UTAS stakeholders to identify user pain points and define key requirements.
• User Experience, Interaction and Visual Design: Crafted an intuitive, inclusive, and visually consistent interface for both UniMaps and UniNav, focusing on clear navigation flows, accessible interaction patterns, and a cohesive visual identity aligned with UTAS’s brand and digital design standards.
• Business analysis: captured requirements with acceptance criteria, developed backlog user stories, and assisted with acceptance testing.
• Scrum Master: Led Agile ceremonies and facilitated team collaboration, ensuring timely delivery of iterative releases, efficient sprint planning, and continuous alignment between stakeholders, designers, and developers throughout the project.
• Project Leadership and Management: Planning and management of project budget, timelines, and delivery quality to ensure successful outcomes.
• Prototyping and validation: Developed and validated prototypes through iterative testing to ensure usability, inclusivity, and technical feasibility.
• Solution development: Designed and deployed the UniMaps web application — a responsive digital map accessible via web browsers, mobile devices, and QR codes.
• Front-end development: Led the front-end styling and accessibility of UniMaps using HTML, CSS and TS/JS, implementing responsive, accessible, and performant interfaces that aligned with the UX and visual design vision.
• System integration: Integrated UniMaps with key UTAS systems and platforms, including:
  • Timetabling and room booking systems
  • UTAS UniApp mobile app and public website
  • Search engines and physical QR code signage across campuses
• Kiosk app development: Created the UniNav kiosk application — large touchscreen wayfinding stations with adjustable interface positioning for accessibility and comfort.
• Accessibility compliance: Ensured full adherence to WCAG Level AA standards, supporting screen readers, keyboard navigation, and high-contrast readability.
• Continuous improvement: Employed a Learn–Build–Measure–Repeat approach to refine functionality and enhance user experience based on real-time feedback.

Result

The project delivered transformational outcomes:

• Improved navigation: Students and staff easily locate rooms, classes, and amenities.
• Reduced anxiety and confusion, enhancing the overall campus experience.
• Decreased dependency on frontline staff for directions and support.
• Increased accessibility and inclusivity for all users, including those with mobility or visual impairments.
• Streamlined campus operations, integrating spatial and scheduling data into one seamless experience.
• Expanded smart campus capabilities with ongoing improvements and kiosk rollouts.
• Industry-leading, accessible map-based way-finding
• Delivery of the original vision of an easy, safe, accessible and integrated navigation experience
• Phone/Tablet/Desktop compatible progressive web application to WCAG Level AA Accessibility standards
• Complex navigation experience with multiple different use cases (long-term visitors, day visitors etc.)
• Mapping of Building Floor and Room ‘point of interests’, with rich data augmentation, route planning and navigation guidance

UniMaps and UniNav are now industry-leading, web-based, map-driven wayfinding applications, with UniMaps accessible at maps.utas.edu.au, setting a benchmark for digital campus navigation across Australian universities.

These projects also won two Telstra Enterprise awards: ‘Customer Experience Game Changer’, and ‘Outstanding Product or Service’, as well as a TASICT award for ‘Best application of ICT’ 2023.