Yarra Valley Water recognised in Australia’s International Good Design Awards

Yarra Valley Water has won a prestigious Good Design Award for the second year running for work to create a new self-service portal for customers.

The organisation’s project, “Evolving customer digital self-service” won the Design Research category in recognition of outstanding design and innovation at Australia’s International Good Design Awards.

The Good Design Awards Jury said Yarra Valley Water’s project to build a user-friendly digital portal was well-researched and would improve self-service uptake, increase the rate of task completion among users and drive efficiencies by reducing calls to the contact centre.

Managing Director Pat McCafferty said he was delighted that Yarra Valley Water was once again recognised for its work to create seamless service.

“This is our second Customer Experience Good Design Award in as many years and is testament to our commitment to continually transform around our customers,” Mr McCafferty said.

“It’s an honour to be recognised amongst the country’s best and brightest in design and innovation.”

Yarra Valley Water’s Divisional Manager, Customer Experience, Dr Anna Lorenzetto, said the award-winning work would create a better user experience for people.

“Customer self-service is a critical element for a seamless customer experience,” she said.

“This mixed methods research revealed the qualitative and quantitative properties necessary for the successful design of Yarra Valley Water’s new self-service portal, My Account.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to be recognised for this work, particularly given the high number of submissions and incredible calibre of projects represented in this year’s awards,” Dr Lorenzetto said.  

The winners of Australia’s peak international design awards were announced today during Good Design Awards Week. This year’s awards attracted a record number of submissions with 933 design projects evaluated by more than 70 Australian and international jurors, including designers, engineers, architects and thought leaders.

Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia, said although 2021 continued to be another challenging year, it was inspiring to see designers and businesses working together to find innovative, customer-centric design solutions and to see them recognised and rewarded for their efforts.