Standing testament to their incredible impact, SANE’s Recovery Community has been awarded Gold at the 2025 Good Design Awards in the Digital Design category.
The prestigious award recognises SANE’s collaboration with design partners Colosl in redesigning SANE's online community Forums, which first launched in 2014 to provide a safe space for Australians with complex mental health needs to connect, share and find support. To date, more than 40,000 members have found community on these forums, and 1.2 million posts have been shared.
The 2024 forum redesign aimed to uplift the user experience to further unify users, create more inclusive and accessible spaces, and reflect the evolving needs of both new and long-time visitors and members.
SANE and Colosl worked with Snaffleweb to leverage 572 lived experience survey responses, 60 detailed discussions with Forum members and 15 user testing interviews to deliver the reimagined SANE Forums. SANE's Recovery Community now helps connect people more easily – including through syndication with 50 other not-for-profit organisations via forum partners.
This is SANE’s second time achieving Gold in the Good Design Awards, with a 2022 win in the Digital Design category alongside partners Folk for work co-designing their groundbreaking digital consumer portal.
On receiving the latest Good Design Tick Trophy at an award ceremony on Friday 17 October at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Sydney, SANE CEO Rachel Green said:
“Lived experience is at the core of SANE’s work, and community co-design was critical to the success of this redesign project.
“We couldn’t have done this without the valuable insights from people with lived experience of complex mental health issues, who helped us refine the scope of what the Forums should be and tested the platform before the relaunch.
“This achievement is an exciting acknowledgement of people living with complex mental illness, who designed so closely with us, as well as the critical importance of spaces like our online community Forums to find support and build a recovery community around them on their journey.”
Selected for its outstanding design quality, innovation and positive impact, the jury comments note that SANE’s forum redesign “truly sets a new benchmark” for digital platforms supporting the mental health community.
Steve Wilcox, Director at Colosl, called the project “a remarkable achievement”.
“The net benefit for the SANE community is staggering – not only in creating a space for people to support each other but in being a conduit for not-for-profits to connect and share their expertise.
“We’re extremely grateful to have worked directly with the community to design and build a product that’s not only helping people today, but sets a solid foundation for SANE to shake things up in the future.”
About the Australian Good Design Awards
The Awards recognise design excellence from around the world, across 13 Design Disciplines and more than 35 categories, spanning the built environment, product design, engineering, digital, social impact, policy design and many more categories.
Each entry undergoes a rigorous evaluation by over 80 international Jurors, assessed against three core criteria: Good Design, Design Innovation, and Design Impact.
About us:
About SANE
SANE is Australia's leading national mental health organisation for people with persistent, recurring or complex mental health issues and trauma. It proves a range of free digital psychosocial services to support them and their families.
Led by the voices of its community, SANE drives change to improve the lives of those living with complex mental health and end stigma and discrimination. Find out more at: www.sane.org.
Contact details:
0407 958 920