Driven by a need to educate travellers and locals about Australia’s beaches and their constantly changing conditions, Surf Lifesaving Australia (SLA) looked towards an online solution with the help of Nano Solutions, a local digital development company. With such a high percentage of our population living close to the coast, and with tourism on the rise, there also came a rise in ocean fatalities and high risk behaviour.

The Beachsafe website and app have been developed in an effort to increase awareness of risks, educate swimmers about ocean conditions, and warn people of dangerous swim spots.

Breadbox Marketing joined the SLA team and Nano Solutions to help scope the Beachsafe website and app development and also design the front-end of both platforms while refreshing the brand’s dated visual presence. This design needed to appeal to a wide audience with an ease of use and a clear focus for the user – finding safe beaches to enjoy.

The Beachsafe platforms integrated push notifications based on geo location tagging. Put simply, a user could sign-up for notifications to ping to their phone when dangerous beach conditions were occurring, such as a shark sighting or strong rip currents.

The skills used for this project were as follows:

• User experience scoping (UX)
• Graphic design
• Brand strategy
• Front-end website and app design

Launching in-time for summer, the Beachsafe website and app went live in November 2016. We are looking forward to the results of this project translating to increased ocean awareness and a safer summer.