Australian Federal Police
Australia's national policing agency.
The Australian Federal Police is Australia's national policing agency, responsible for protecting Australians and advancing the country's national interests. The AFP website acts as a critical public channel for national security information, policing services, reporting pathways and community engagement.
Doghouse was appointed to redesign and rebuild the AFP website using District CMS, our Drupal platform for government. The result is a modern, accessible and operationally resilient platform that strengthens the AFP's digital presence while making information and services easier for the public to access and navigate.
Six goals shaped our approach
Showcase global policing impact.
Tell the story of the AFP's role in Australia and across the world.
News, podcasts and storytelling at the heart of the experience.
Enhance career experiences.
Make recruitment a natural part of the journey, not a separate destination.
Live roles surfaced where people are already exploring the AFP's work.
Streamline crime reporting.
Make the path to report a crime obvious from the moment a citizen lands.
Fewer steps, clearer language, less friction at the moment that matters.
Unify digital presence.
Create a single experience for corporate and careers audiences.
Two sites become one.
New brand application.
Implement the latest AFP rebrand.
Visual identity, typography, tone of voice all changed.
Accessibility and readability.
Meet WCAG 2.1 AA across every page, built in from the start.
Plain language, screen-reader support and keyboard navigation as standard.
Challenges & solutions
Simplifying a large and complex ecosystem into a clear, consistent experience.
The AFP website supports a diverse audience, from people applying for police checks and exploring career opportunities, through to those reporting crime or accessing support services. The challenge was ensuring users could quickly understand where they needed to go and confidently complete their task.
We conducted a detailed review of user behaviour, navigation patterns and content pathways to identify friction. This informed a broader review of the AFP's information architecture, content structure and taxonomy.
Two separate websites
The AFP's corporate and careers websites lived on different platforms with different navigation.
Public users and prospective recruits hit a wall trying to move between them.
Complex jurisdictions
The AFP's work spans crime types, jurisdictions and personnel roles, with little common structure.
The old structure reflected internal org structure rather than how citizens actually search.
Recruitment in a silo
Career content was treated as a separate destination.
People learning about counter-terrorism could not see the live roles doing exactly that work.
A new brand, half applied
The 2023 AFP identity sat on top of older patterns rather than running consistently through the content.
Brand presence faded the deeper you went.
Information architecture
Redefining the information architecture.
Working closely with the AFP team, we conducted workshops to understand user needs, organisational priorities and navigation challenges. This research informed a complete review of the site's information architecture, content structure and taxonomy.
The new framework improved how content, services and user journeys were connected, making it easier for people to find information, access services and complete key tasks.
The result was a more intuitive user experience that improved content discovery, reduced navigation complexity and better supported the diverse needs of AFP audiences.
One platform · six clear branches
Improving the user experience.
To improve the user experience, we mapped key user journeys and identified opportunities to better connect information, services, recruitment and storytelling across the website.
Rather than treating recruitment as a separate destination, we integrated career pathways throughout the experience, helping users discover opportunities in the context of the AFP's work and responsibilities.
We then developed and tested a range of content structures and page layouts to support the AFP's diverse content needs, from crime types and operational information through to news, campaigns and recruitment content. Wireframes were refined through stakeholder feedback before progressing into design and development.
Our approach
From audit to launch.
Discover
Audit of both websites and the recruitment platform, supported by user research.
We mapped how people moved through the experience, where they encountered friction and what they came to the site to do.
Audit
Restructure
A rebuilt taxonomy that reflects the AFP's work and how people look for it.
Developed with AFP stakeholders and validated through workshops and user testing.
Taxonomy
Design
Journeys redesigned around real user needs and behaviours.
Recruitment and storytelling were embedded throughout the experience, not isolated in separate sections.
UX
Build
District CMS as the platform, with live recruitment opportunities integrated into the website.
Content was migrated into Drupal through a dedicated migration pipeline.
District CMS
The platform
Building on District CMS.
District CMS accelerated delivery through its existing search, workflow, component and content framework, letting the team focus on the more complex aspects of the redevelopment.
A key challenge was consolidating the AFP's corporate and careers platforms while integrating with the external recruitment system. We developed a custom integration that pulls live roles directly into the website, plus a second integration for content migration.
The implementation
What we built.
District CMS as the platform
Out-of-the-box search, workflows, components and content types accelerated the build.
One platform now carries corporate, services and recruitment content together.
Live jobs in the experience
A custom integration with the AFP's recruitment platform pulls live roles into the main site.
People move from interest to application without leaving the AFP experience.
Content migration pipeline
A dedicated migration pipeline mapped existing content into Drupal without loss.
Editorial structure carried over so the team could keep publishing on day one.
Bespoke design system
Colour, typography and components designed for the 2023 AFP identity.
Applied consistently across every section, including careers.
Streamlined editorial workflows
Workflows, content types and roles tuned for the AFP's editorial team.
Administrators publish faster, with fewer steps.
Security & accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AA on every page from the start, tested across screen readers and keyboard.
Security audits aligned to ACSC guidance.
Beyond launch
We host it, support it and maintain it.
Launch is the start of the relationship, not the end of it. Hosted, supported and continuously improved long after go-live.
Host
Managed hosting
Infrastructure run and monitored by the team that built the platform.
Support
Security & patching
Ongoing security reviews and patching, aligned to ACSC guidance.
Maintain
Continuous improvement
The platform keeps evolving over years, not months.
The outcome
Measurable impact, from launch.
Engagement
200%+
Increase in user engagement after launch.
Police checks
878,000+
National Police Checks processed annually through the platform's self-service experience.
Accessibility
WCAG 2.1
AA compliance across every page, from launch.
Security
ACSC
Aligned to Australian Cyber Security Centre guidance.
Awards
2×2024
Australian Web Awards — Best in Show (Content Architecture) and Winner (Drupal category).
Looking at a similar build?
Government, citizen-facing, complex IA, recruitment integrations. This is the kind of work we are built for.