Create a superior landing page for Brisbane City Council — a complete reimagining of the homepage at https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/ that is demonstrably better than the current one in visual craft, usability, and emotional impact, while remaining recognisably a real city council homepage that a resident could actually use.
Study the current homepage first. Its core elements are: a "Welcome to Brisbane / What can we help you with?" hero with a large search field and popular-search shortcuts (check my bin collection day, find Council services, parking at King George Square, find Council jobs, find CityCat information) over a Story Bridge sunset photograph; a Latest news / Community updates trio (Kedron Brook Revitalisation, Brisbane Making our Mark, Story Bridge renewal); an Emergency resources strip (emergency dashboard, sign up for weather alerts, latest community updates); a Browse by category directory of thirteen service categories (Online services; Animals and pets; Bins, waste and recycling; Building and planning; Business; Community support and safety; Environment and water; Events, arts and culture; Laws and permits; Libraries, venues and facilities; Parks and recreation; Transport and parking; About Council); a Your Brisbane editorial section of things-to-do articles (free family activities, City Loop buses, bushwalking guides and more); a What's near me location search; a Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games banner; and a footer with contact details (phone 07 3403 8888, interpreter service 13 14 50, customer centres), social links (Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn), newsletter signup, and the Traditional Custodians acknowledgement. Your redesign must cover all of this real content territory — and beat the original on every axis.
Download the real assets from the live site and use them: the Story Bridge sunset hero and the genuine news, parks, events, and lifestyle photography served from its content/dam image URLs, plus the council logo and icons where they serve the design. Where the existing photography is insufficient for the design you want to build — additional heroes, textures, illustrations, or imagery for sections the current site lacks — generate or source additional assets so that no section ever ships with a placeholder, grey box, broken image, or stock-feeling gap. Every visual on the page must be a real, finished asset stored locally and referenced by the final static site.
Then elevate everything the current site does poorly. The current homepage is a competent but flat government template: a static hero, plain card grids, little sense of the city's subtropical character, almost no motion, no personality. Your version should feel like Brisbane — warm, verdant, river-curved, sunlit, subtropical-modern — while staying credible as civic infrastructure. Directions worth pursuing include: a hero that makes the search experience genuinely delightful (instant, forgiving, with smart suggestions drawn from the real service catalogue, popular shortcuts, and full keyboard support); a service directory that is faster to scan and navigate than a wall of thirteen text cards; meaningful motion and micro-interactions that respond to scroll, hover, and ideally time of day; news and community updates presented with editorial confidence rather than uniform thumbnails; a "What's near me" moment that feels personal and useful; a Brisbane 2032 section that conveys genuine excitement rather than a token banner; and an emergency-resources presence that is visible and reassuring without being alarming. Accessibility is non-negotiable for a council site: semantic structure, visible focus states, WCAG-conscious contrast, reduced-motion support, and full keyboard operability. The page must be fully responsive from small phones to wide desktops, and every interactive element must do something real within the page — search actually filters and suggests, menus actually open, tabs and carousels actually switch, forms give genuine feedback. No dead controls, no dummy links that go nowhere without explanation.
Do not take shortcuts or settle for a cookie-cutter "modern government homepage" template with a hero, three cards, and a footer. This skill imposes no token budget limit, so pursue the full depth of the experience: keep refining the interactions, states, motion, atmosphere, responsive behaviour, and small civic details until the page feels authored, complete, and plainly superior to the site it replaces.
