GeoInsight wins Good Design Australia Award for Design Strategy

Geoscience Australia’s new region-based spatial exploration tool GeoInsight has won a Good Design Award for Design Strategy at the 2024 Australian Good Design Awards ceremony.

Developed as part of Geoscience Australia’s concluded Exploring for the Future Program in collaboration with Future Friendly, GeoInsight uses a human-centred design approach that utilises data visualisation and comprehensive insights to help stakeholders understand and engage with geoscience information in a digestible format.

The awards highlight and attract cutting-edge design projects from across the globe, celebrating the best in design, architecture, engineering, research, fashion and social impact.

The main objective of the Design Strategy category is to recognise the role of design in driving business strategy, with specific criteria that evaluates how organisations use design as a strategic tool to be more efficient, more effective and more competitive.

Geoscience Project Leader Kathryn Waltenberg said that when developing GeoInsight the team underwent several months of consultation and co-design to define their vision, with a key focus on user needs and efficiency.

“I am extremely proud of the GeoInsight team for winning this award for its cutting-edge design,” Dr Waltenberg said.

“Geoscience Australia has a history of publishing robust scientific data, however current tools are often designed for highly technical users with a deep understanding of geological data.

“We designed GeoInsight to sit alongside these technical tools as a simpler alternative that fills the gap by providing the specific information that is needed, rather than all the information that is available.”

Geoscience Australia’s Chief of Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division, Dr Andrew Heap commended the GeoInsight team for their hard work developing the tool, stating that it expands on current offerings for the non-technical audience.

“This recognition from Good Design Australia reinforces our commitment of making science accessible to all,” Dr Heap said.

“GeoInsight will not only support industry, government and academia decision making by providing refined and instant customised regional data summaries, it will also provide everyday Australians with a user centric, accessible and easy to use data platform.”