Plain Language Awards

Celebrate the stories of our clearest business communicators

Winner: Best Plain English Website — public sector 2018

Auckland Council

Auckland Council's Nathan McIntosh, right, accepts his trophy from sponsor Craig Christensen of Graphic Solutions. Photo by Rebecca McMillan Photograhy


Website address

aucklandcouncil.govt.nz


Judges’ comments

I am very positive about this website. The look and feel are friendly and plain. The reader is guided through the huge amount of information. The creators of the site managed to do this in such a way that you only get to see what is relevant for you at that moment for that question. The site talks directly to readers in simple plain language.


Media statement

In 2015 we began the journey of redesigning, re-platforming and re-writing our website.  The site was not working for our users and pages were long, complex and hard to make sense of.

Over three years we invested in our teams’ skills and worked with our colleagues to put users first. We championed plain English at every opportunity. Through this work our team created new principles and standards to share across council.

The website is now the “navigator and interpreter of council and it’s services”. Our mission never ends and every day we look for opportunities to improve and ensure our website is easy to use.

This award is one of the Auckland Council,  Digital and Transformation team’s proudest moments.  We would like to acknowledge the team who did the hard yards and the support we had from our senior leaders to run this project.

Nathan McIntosh
Digital Manager
Auckland Council