RAL plans, builds and maintains the provincial road network across five districts: Capricorn, Mopani, Sekhukhune, Vhembe and Waterberg. That comes with plenty the public needs to find: open tenders, vacancies, project updates, reports and the quarterly Mmileng magazine.
Objective
Rebuild the RAL website so that everyone who needs something from RAL can find it quickly, and so the content is easy to keep up to date.
Result
A fully custom WordPress site with dedicated sections for tenders, projects, vacancies, documents and Mmileng, plus a page and an interactive map for every district.
Before building anything, I designed two full prototypes: one dark, one light. Same structure, same content, completely different mood. The dark one shows off imagery and stats beautifully, so it gets the starring role in the slider below. The light one is what you’ll find on the live site. Drag the slider and see if you can pick a favourite.
Dark Prototype
Bold and high contrast, with deep backgrounds that make imagery and numbers stand out.
Light prototype (the one that went live)
Clean and open, with plenty of white space that keeps long lists of tenders and documents easy to scan.
RAL’s visitors range from contractors checking tenders to job seekers and people who simply want to know when their road is getting fixed. So the design had to be clear first and clever second.
Typography
Poppins at a generous size. Nothing fancy, because nobody wants to squint at a tender notice.
Colour & Contrast
The selected palette leans on RAL’s institutional colours, kept to a supporting role against generous white space.
Navigation & Structure
A simple main menu for Tenders, Projects, Districts, Vacancies and Mmileng, with breadcrumbs on deeper pages so nobody gets lost halfway down a tender.
Mobile & Accessibility
Plenty of visitors will be on a phone with patchy data, so the district maps turn into a filterable list on small screens and tender documents are one tap away.
Once the direction was locked in, I built the site in WordPress from scratch. Every page was designed and developed around what RAL actually publishes.
Home
The front door. RAL's mandate, road and bridge numbers, and testimonials from the communities the roads serve.
About page
RAL's role, vision and mission, and how it fits in with the Limpopo Provincial Government.
Projects
Completed and in-progress projects, organised by financial year and district. Every project links through to its own page.
Tenders
A public tender board covering open, closed, awarded and archived tenders, so contractors can find what they're after quickly.
Vacancies
Current openings at RAL, each with its own listing.
Press releases
RAL's news and announcements in one place.
Mmileng magazine
An archive for RAL's official quarterly magazine, so every issue has a home.
FAQ & contact
Answers to the common questions, plus a spam-protected form for everything else.