Case Study - WEMDRA

Simplifying Complexity in Australia’s Energy Dispute System

The Australian Wholesale Energy Market Dispute Resolution Adviser (WEMDRA) plays a critical role in resolving disputes within one of the country’s most technically complex and legally dense sectors. But its previous systems weren’t built for clarity or efficiency. Member communications were fragmented. Legal references were difficult to navigate. User and contact management was slow and manual.

Codacora partnered with WEMDRA to build a secure, user-friendly, and highly structured platform that transforms a labyrinthine legal process into an accessible, collaborative digital experience. The result is a modern, trusted tool used by energy stakeholders across Australia.

Designing for Precision, Clarity, and Authority

This platform wasn’t just a directory or website — it’s a critical operational tool used by regulators, energy generators, network operators, and legal representatives. That meant our UX and design needed to communicate authority, neutrality, and usability — all without overwhelming users with legalese.

Design Approach:

• Minimalist, high-contrast interface for legibility and fast navigation
• Intuitive categorisation of legal pathways, decision trees, and documents
• Responsive layouts that accommodate everything from quick searches to in-depth reading
• A professional visual identity grounded in the energy sector but distinct from commercial branding

From branding and logo design to interface hierarchy, every detail was calibrated to reflect WEMDRA’s national role and high-stakes use cases.

Automating the Administrative Burden

One of the core challenges facing WEMDRA’s secretariat and stakeholders was the manual overhead of user management, contact updates, and routine communications.

We solved this by building a set of targeted automations that reduce human effort and improve data integrity:

• Self-service user management with built-in verification and access controls
• Automated contact syncing and directory updates across stakeholder groups
• Scheduled compliance reminders and policy update notifications
• Access-based permissions to ensure users only see what’s relevant to their role

These systems collectively save hours of manual work each week and help ensure timely communication across the entire energy sector.

Security You Can Trust in a Regulated Sector

With sensitive legal and commercial information passing through the platform, security was non-negotiable. We implemented a multi-layered security model aligned with best practices for government-adjacent platforms.

Security Features:

• Encrypted login and session management
• Role-based access control for users representing various organisations
• Firewall and rate limiting to protect against brute force and scraping attacks
• Audit logging to track access to sensitive content
• Data hosting within Australia to meet data sovereignty expectations

These measures ensure WEMDRA’s platform is not just functional, but reliably secure and trusted by stakeholders.

Making the Complex Simple — by Design

The wholesale energy market is dense with acronyms, regulatory obligations, and overlapping responsibilities. Our mission was to flatten that complexity — not by oversimplifying, but by making navigation logical and visual structure intuitive.

• Clear, guided workflows for managing disputes and referencing protocols
• Live search and filtered views to help users surface relevant content quickly
• Visual cues and iconography to distinguish legal content types and timelines
• Accessible design aligned with WCAG 2.1 guidelines

Whether users are lawyers, analysts, or policy advisors, they can now find the right path faster — and with less cognitive load.

Outcome: A Trusted Platform in a High-Stakes Sector

The new WEMDRA platform delivers efficiency, clarity, and trust to an audience that expects nothing less. From secure automations to intuitive UX, every feature was designed to empower users while preserving the precision of the legal processes it supports.

WEMDRA now operates not only as a directory, but as a central hub for the management and resolution of disputes in Australia’s wholesale energy market — one that’s easier to use, easier to maintain, and respected by all its stakeholders.