Project
UPco
Ongoing development for an independent planning consultancy
UPco, the Urban Planning Collective, has been guiding developers through the planning approval process since 1989. The practice works out of Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide on everything from houses and apartments to shops, factories, schools and hospitals. Its website does two jobs that matter commercially: it proves the firm has done work like yours before, and it introduces the individual planners a client will actually deal with. I came on as UPco's ongoing developer, taking over a site that already existed and becoming responsible for what it did next.
Project Scope
- A filterable archive of completed projects
- A team directory covering three offices
- Planner profiles linked to their own work
- Ongoing development and support
The challenge
The site's real value sits in its depth. There are dozens of completed projects covering heritage buildings, hospitals, affordable housing and whole suburb redevelopments. But a long list only helps if a visitor can reach the handful that match their situation. Someone planning a block of apartments should not have to scroll past schools and hospitals to find proof that UPco has done their kind of job before.
The people are the other half of it. Clients engage named planners, not a logo. Yet the people were introduced in one place and the work was listed in another, with nothing connecting the two. A visitor impressed by a planner's background had no way to see what that person had actually delivered.
What I built
The work has focused on two things: making the back catalogue easy to search, and making the people easy to find.
A filter for the project archive
Visitors narrow the projects by sector across nine categories, then again by sub category such as affordable housing, retail, retirement living or single dwellings. The results update on the page, so finding comparable work takes a couple of clicks instead of a scroll.
Project cards you can size up at a glance
Each project card carries the key details at a glance: who it was for, what type of development it was, and its scale. A visitor sizes up a project without opening it. UPco chooses what appears at the top, so its strongest work is the first thing a visitor sees.
Team profiles that open in place
Every planner across the three offices is listed, grouped into the leadership team and the wider planning team. Clicking a name opens their background without taking the visitor away from the page they were on.
Profiles connected to the work
Each profile surfaces the projects and articles that person has been part of, so a visitor who likes the look of a planner can see their actual work in the same click.
Across the site
Projects: filtered by sector
Team: the planners behind the work
The result
The archive now works the way a prospective client actually searches. They arrive knowing their sector, filter to it, and see projects just like their own rather than a general list. From a project they can reach the planner who ran it, and from an article they can reach its author. The firm's depth is now something a visitor can get to, not something they have to take on faith.
The team keeps the content current themselves, which matters for a practice where projects complete and people join constantly.
If you have inherited a site that someone else built and need someone to take it forward, that is exactly the kind of work I do. Get in touch and tell me what yours needs to do.
Up front, super easy to work with, speedy and knowledgeable, I'd recommend Phil in a heartbeat (and already have!).
Faith Fuhrer
UPco
Common questions about this project
Yes, and it is a good part of what I do. UPco already had a custom site when I came on. The job was to understand what was there, keep it running, and add the things the business had grown to need.
A mix of new features when the business needs them and quiet upkeep the rest of the time. Some months that is a new way to filter or display content. Other months it is updates, fixes and keeping the site fast.
Yes. Projects, team profiles and news articles are all added and edited by UPco's own staff without needing me. I get involved when something new has to be built rather than filled in.
Yes. Planning consultancies, and firms like them, sell expertise and track record rather than products. The website's job is to prove both quickly, which usually comes down to making a body of past work searchable and the people behind it visible.
Because an unsorted list of fifty projects reads as noise. A visitor who can narrow to their own sector in one click sees a firm that has done exactly their kind of job, which is a far stronger argument than a longer list.
Yes. UPco operates from Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. I am based in Geelong and work with clients across Australia.
