The challenge
The Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre (MVEC) at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute is an independent source of immunisation education and advice for healthcare professionals in Australia.
When COVID-19 arrived, the questions changed overnight: which vaccines Australia had secured, how far each one was in its trials, when doses would arrive and who they were safe for. MVEC needed two things. A website where clear, current answers could be found in minutes, on a desktop or a phone. And a place where immunisation providers could learn online, ahead of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Victoria.
What we did
For the main site we designed a COVID-19 section built around those questions. A tracker of Australia's vaccine agreements shows every vaccine on its own card: the trial phase as a coloured bar, the type of vaccine, the developer, likely doses, the number of doses for Australia and where they would be made. Around it sit news with video and podcast episodes, safety information and special population groups, from children and pregnancy to older people and people who are immunosuppressed. The page was designed for phones screen by screen, not just squeezed down.
A year later we designed What is COVID-19?, a long guide split into short parts with a table of contents at the side: illustrated cards for common, other and severe symptoms and for long COVID, how the virus spreads, who is at higher risk, how vaccines are tested, common questions and myth busters. Everything uses MVEC's colour system, the same bands of yellow, green, blue and purple from the logo.
For immunisation providers we built the Education Portal on WordPress with LearnDash and BuddyBoss: eLearning courses, webinar recordings, events and annual memberships, with Easy Digital Downloads and MemberDash handling purchases and access.
The result
MVEC got one place for clear COVID-19 information and a learning platform it runs on its own. The Education Portal was built during COVID, and its eLearning was essential to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the state of Victoria.
MVEC's own team keeps adding courses, webinars and events to the portal.
