Datum South Australia: civil tech website and design system for infrastructure software

Datum South builds the survey instruments, construction management software and asset platforms behind Australia's roads, bridges, rail and water networks. We designed its brand, website and design system: construction tech UI/UX that speaks with the precision of an engineer and the warmth of a field crew. This edition is localised for Australia: metric units, state road and transport authorities, A$ pricing incl. GST, and a sun-bleached palette.

Project facts

• Client: Datum South Pty Ltd (fictional)
• Sector: Civil engineering, heavy civil construction, geospatial
• Markets: Australia: 6 states and 2 territories, from Sydney to Darwin and Hobart
• Services: Market localisation · Copywriting · Brand adaptation · Civic tech website design · Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · SEO foundations
• Templates: 8 page templates shared with every Datum South edition
• Stack: Hand-built HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript; one strings file and one theme file per market

The brief

Australian infrastructure language, not American with sunshine

Australia shares the civil-tech vocabulary but not the institutions or the units. State road and transport authorities replace state DOTs, council rates and state funding replace bond measures, and everything is metric: kilometres, metres, tonnes, Celsius. Pricing is in Australian dollars including GST, the legal entity is a Pty Ltd, and the tone is relaxed and direct with a light touch.

Designing for Australia

What actually changed between the US and this edition

• Story - US edition: Datum South started with a total station and a pickup truck in Golden, Colorado; 48 states · Australia: Started with a total station and a ute in Surry Hills, Sydney; 6 states and 2 territories
• Reach - US edition: 48 states, state DOTs · Australia: 6 states and 2 territories, state road and transport authorities
• Units - US edition: Miles, ft, tons, Fahrenheit · Australia: Kilometres, m, tonnes, Celsius
• Prices - US edition: US dollars · Australia: A$468 incl. GST; A$0 free tier; purchase order accepted
• Legal - US edition: US governing law · Australia: Datum South Pty Ltd, New South Wales governing law, IRAP-ready hosting
• Event - US edition: US user conference · Australia: Baseline 2027 at the International Convention Centre, Sydney, 18–20 May
• Support - US edition: US service centres · Australia: +61 2 5550 0190, 140 authorised service centres, ship to Sydney
• Look - US edition: Forest ink, concrete paper, signal orange; Fraunces + Public Sans + IBM Plex Mono · Australia: High-key paper, sage and steel blue, warm ochre; General Sans + DM Sans, softer radii

Brand adaptation

The same Datum South, with a local accent

The palette moves to a sun-bleached high-key light: paper and card whites, ink and ink-2 for text, stone and sage for secondary surfaces, and a warm ochre accent (accent, accent-2) for action and emphasis. Steel blue carries links and interactive states. General Sans and DM Sans (Fontshare and Google Fonts) feel contemporary and relaxed, and the corner radii soften the system. The descriptor becomes Civil Tech.

Homepage and key journeys

A full-bleed hero over a Sydney highway interchange leads into The ground truth for Australian infrastructure, with coordinates 33.8688° S · 151.2093° E and a stat row for 6 states and 2 territories. Below: an industries carousel, animated impact stats, a product trio (survey, structural engineering, collaboration), an AI feature banner, tabbed customer stories (M1 Pacific Motorway, Barwon Water District, Northgate Line, Kingsford Crossing) and a partner marquee. The most distinctive flow is the product finder: live search and category chips filter robotic total stations, RTK GNSS receivers, machine control and software.

Compliance, accessibility and trust

• Support Terms between Datum South Pty Ltd and the customer, governed by the laws of New South Wales, fees in Australian dollars annually in advance.
• Privacy under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, with the OAIC complaint route.
• Footer: Datum South Pty Ltd, Surry Hills NSW address and an Acknowledgement of Country.
• Passes automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every page at 360, 390, 768 and 1440 px: no contrast failures, no unreachable controls, no horizontal scrolling.
• A language switcher built from hreflang sits in the header on desktop and in the footer on phones.

One system, twelve markets

Every visible string lives in one file per market, and every colour and typeface in one theme file. This edition needed no new templates or components: a strings file, a theme, regional photography and local legal content made it a different brand experience. For a civic-tech company with international plans, a new market becomes a content project rather than a rebuild.

Deliverables

• Market profile: language, formats, legal and seasonality
• Full localised copy across 8 templates, header, footer and forms
• Brand adaptation: palette, type pairing and logo descriptor
• 37 regional photographs (Pexels, credited in credits.json)
• Local legal content
• Accessibility pass (WCAG 2.2 AA, automated) and QA at four screen widths
• Portfolio media: stills, full-page captures, scroll video, OG image, brand board