Parbery Consulting

A Webflow site redesign for a Canberra-based consultancy doing brilliant work across government, for-purpose, and defence.

Overview

Parbery Consulting is a Canberra-based consultancy specialising in government, defence, and for-purpose work. They are one of the largest supporters of DVCS (another site I designed), and their commitment to purpose-driven organisations is unique and special.

Their prior WordPress site was managed by an agency with a tight grip on the reins. Changing a colour or adding an image meant raising a ticket and waiting. With a capable, hands-on marketing team ready to take ownership, that just wasn't working for them anymore.

What needed to be addressed:

A WordPress site with no flexibility for the internal team to self-manage
Pages that no longer reflected how the organisation had grown and changed
High ongoing maintenance burden with no clear path to reducing it
A large blog archive of 160+ articles with no effective way for readers to search or filter content

Project goals

The aim was to give Parbery a website that looked as good as the work they do, and that their team could actually run themselves.

Take back control. Migrate from a rigidly managed WordPress setup to Webflow, giving the internal marketing team full autonomy to update content, add images, and make changes without raising a request.
Reflect the organisation as it is now. Restructure and rewrite pages to better represent how Parbery operates today, including their for-purpose work and their government and defence expertise.
Make the blog genuinely usable. Build a custom search and filter system for 160+ existing articles, with logic that prevents contradictory filter combinations so readers always land on results that exist.
Reduce ongoing maintenance. Build the CMS so everything is interconnected, meaning updates in one place flow through the site automatically rather than requiring multiple manual edits.
Attract the right people. Design a site that works for prospective clients and prospective employees, making it clear who Parbery is and why someone would want to work with them or for them.

Note from Shan

Parbery were actually one of the supporters who helped fund some of my work with DVCS. Getting to help them with their own website felt really special.

Honestly? I think this is one of the most beautiful websites I've built. The palette, the motion, the semicircles. What's not to love?

Accessibility

Parbery were an absolute dream to work with on accessibility. They were on board with every suggestion from the start, including expanding their palette to accommodate better contrast across the site. Focus states are code-driven, taking into account the background and using whichever of the two colours gives better contrast. Nothing to guess!

Typography hierarchy, colour contrast, and keyboard navigation were all considered across every page. The site meets WCAG 2.2 AA as a baseline throughout.

The result

Parbery's new site launched, with the internal team loving the updated look and feel. Their marketing team can now update content, publish articles, and manage the site without any external help. Hosting is back under Parbery control! The CMS is set up to grow with them, and the blog is actually navigable for the first time.