Fire Rescue Victoria: Home Fire Safety Tool
Senior UX Designer and React developer on a public-facing home fire safety assessment tool, bridging React front-end with Power Pages to help everyday Australians assess and reduce preventable fire risk.
The Challenge
Most fire-related deaths in Australia occur not from bushfires or natural disasters, but from preventable fires in the home. Fire Rescue Victoria sought to address this by creating an accessible online tool to help everyday Australians assess their home fire safety, accommodating diverse living conditions, second dwellings, smoke alarm status, and the mobility of residents in case of evacuation.
My Role
I served as Senior UX Designer and React front-end developer, leading both design and development. This is one of the clearest examples in my portfolio of the design-to-code pipeline: I developed a custom React front-end integrated with Power Pages templates to deliver a seamless, accessible user experience.
I acted as a key client contact, running design sessions and demos to align stakeholders and ensure delivery confidence. The build used React, Power Pages, Dataverse, Power Automate, and a model-driven app for internal data management.
Why This Matters
The combination of React and Power Platform in a single delivery is unusual. Most developers specialise in one or the other. This project demonstrates the ability to bridge modern JavaScript frameworks with enterprise low-code platforms, delivering a public-facing tool with real social impact.
Accessibility and responsiveness were prioritised throughout to support high-risk and mobility-impaired users, the people most vulnerable to home fire incidents.
“Heather is always articulate and effective when describing technical components to us so that we, as public health staff, feel confident and reassured at all times and can progress work more efficiently because of her way of working. Heather appears committed, enthusiastic and eager to provide clear leadership to achieve project goals.” Christabel Millar, Community Education Advisor, Community Resilience, Fire Rescue Victoria
Hard Skills
React, Power Pages, Dataverse, Power Automate, CSS, Figma, model-driven apps, responsive front-end development, accessibility
Soft Skills
Client relationship management, design-to-code delivery, stakeholder demos and design sessions, technical translation for non-technical audiences, accessibility-first design