Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA)

Pixel Fusion partnered with Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA) - providing strategic guidance, technical expertise, and a user-centric approach to all of RFA's organisations.

RFA is responsible for some of Auckland's most iconic properties, comprising five separate organisations, including Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Zoo, Auckland Live, Auckland Stadiums, and Auckland Conventions.

Pixel Fusion's engagement with RFA began with identifying the opportunity to unite all of RFA's digital capabilities into a single, powerful open-source platform and API. Before working with Pixel Fusion, each of RFA's organisations had its own website, many of which were on outdated and cumbersome proprietary systems. By bringing all the sites onto a single platform, Pixel Fusion allowed each site to leverage the platform's capabilities, increasing the speed of delivery and the wealth of features and functionality available to each business unit. Additionally, the ability to share content across different organisations opened up a wealth of possibilities for cross-promotion and collaboration.

A mean, lean agile machine - implementing an agile delivery approach.

RFA previously operated with a traditional, more waterfall-based approach, which was slow and allowed for limited iterations or testing. Three years later, Pixel Fusion and RFA are running a dedicated RFA sprint team in 3-month release cycles. In parallel, they run a lean discovery track that allows them to discover, test, and refine ideas before feeding them into the delivery cycle. This approach has been an incredible success and has proven revolutionary to RFA and its organisations.

Previous iterations of the organisation's website took up to a year to deliver and proved to be incredibly high risk due to a lack of frequent user testing and validation. With their current approach, they can spin up a new website in under four weeks. Furthermore, they can conceptualise an entirely new digital product, discover, validate and refine it, and have a working prototype up and running within a single sprint.

Innovative technical and design solutions with Auckland Art Gallery.

In 2015, Pixel Fusion worked with RFA on a full redesign and redevelopment of the Auckland Art Gallery’s website. The new gallery site, released in late 2015, was designed and developed using agile methodologies, and through close collaboration with gallery stakeholders. The innovative, modular design language allowed for rapid and consistent design and development, while the application of the brand identity breathed new life into the gallery's digital experience. In 2016, they followed the release of the new website with an online store, using Shopify to power the store and applying custom styling to ensure a seamless user experience throughout. The online store now accounts for nearly 30% of the Gallery store's sales each month.

Auckland Zoo has an incredibly important vision and mission - working to help visitors engage with the animals in its care and promote a wider message of conservation and awareness.

The most recent project Pixel Fusion worked on with RFA was Auckland Zoo's new website. The old Zoo website was tricky to manage, making it difficult to update content. Auckland Zoo has dynamic, ever-changing stories to share, and they needed that reflected this, a site they could update easily and frequently.

Their new site, leveraging RFA's common capabilities platform, provides a highly usable admin interface. From a user perspective, the Zoo's new site is vibrant and colourful, allowing users to immerse themselves in the rich media and stories the Zoo has to share. An important addition to the site was integration with Rezdy, allowing users to purchase Zoo tickets online.

Revolutionising RFA’s digital capabilities.

Pixel Fusion's long-term partnership with RFA has brought significant value to the organisation by providing strategic guidance, technical expertise, and a user-centric approach to all of RFA's organisations. By consolidating RFA's digital capabilities into a single, open-source platform, Pixel Fusion allowed each business unit to leverage platform capabilities, increasing the speed of delivery and functionality. Additionally, the implementation of a fully lean, agile delivery approach has reduced delivery time, increased user testing and validation, and allowed for the rapid development of new digital products. Through the partnership, Pixel Fusion has delivered successful redesigns and redevelopments of the Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Zoo, and Auckland Live websites, improving user experiences and increasing sales revenue. The ongoing partnership has revolutionised RFA's digital capabilities and provided long-term value to the organisation.