Organisation profile

Multicultural Mental Health Australia mmha.org.au is a federally funded agency that provides national leadership in mental health and suicide prevention for Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.

Brief

The number one requirement was that the site should appeal to MMHA's wide range of visitor types: consumers, carers, mental health professionals, academics and media. 

The site should be maintainable by MMHA staff using a web browser from any location.  It should support various template based content types including: news, events, resources, services, publications and research projects.

Solution

Lime Factor worked with MMHA to develop a specification that covered all aspects of the website including design, features, hosting and follow-up service.   We then quoted a fixed price for the project based on that specification.

mmha.org.au is based on the Plone open-source content management system, which suited MMHA because it:

• is a full featured CMS with powerful search feature
• has a range of modular features that can be added as needed
• is web standards compliant, including accessibility for disabled
• is free of licensing fees.

The Plone product was customised in terms of visual design (colours, logo, layout) and content (news, events, resources etc).

Other services provided include:

• Arranging competitive hosting
• Backup and restore procedures
• Customised CMS training based on MMHA's own content
• Integration with e-bulletin mailing lists
• Website usage statistics compilation and analysis
• Consultation with MMHA's partner organisations
• Implementation of website survey to comply with Federal Govt evaluation criteria.

Measurable results

In a 2005 survey of the website 85% of visitors rated the site as 'easy' or 'very easy' to use.  332 people responded to the survey, which was administered via the website.

After two years as a live site, mmha.org.au is still relevant and well organised.   This is rare for a site with so many communication objectives and regular updates.  Continuity was maintained even when the primary communications officer left and her replacement took over with no handover period and just 2 hours training by Lime Factor.