— Approach

This project involved numerous stakeholders, epic owners, and internal opinions. Bringing a solid customer voice was crucial to eliminating assumptions and lengthy discussions. By adopting a blend of Design Thinking and a Lean UX approach, we could comprehensively understand the target audience and market, leading to a strategy that aligned organisational and visitor goals.

— Understanding the problems

During initial stakeholder interviews, we clarified the core organisational and website goals. We also conducted a product retrospective on the existing website, which helped align the team and highlighted the positive and negative aspects.

In Victoria, we visited various parks where we met park rangers and diverse visitors. The park rangers shared their experiences and common visitor issues. Speaking with the visitors uncovered insights and common themes regarding their decision journeys, personalities, and needs. Further data analysis helped validate the pain points in user behaviour, identifying clear dropout points and lack of engagement.

Additionally, we conducted a competitor review on commonly used websites like Trip Advisor, Google Travel Guides, and other activity sites (trail hiking and MTB sites). We also reviewed popular national park websites globally and travel guide sites like National Geographic and Lonely Planet.

— Identifying the Problems

Exploring personas and mapping user experience journeys highlighted vital issues. The content on the Parks Victoria website was a core issue, failing to align with user needs. The long-winded, technically written content could have been more exciting and inspiring, failing to paint a picture of the overall adventure. Site navigation was tedious, with relevant information buried across multiple pages. Contact details, operational hours, condition reports, and campground information were scattered, and behaviour needed to be more consistent across pages.

Research showed that different users used various tools during the research planning stage, focusing on the experience. Common themes that persuaded users to convert included photography, intriguing location overviews, and reviews. Secondary themes included accommodation and facilities.

— Prioritising and Aligning as a Team

Through brainstorming sessions with the team and stakeholders, we addressed pain points and identified ways to meet visitor needs while aligning with organisational goals. Winning ideas were filtered using an impact/effort matrix to update and prioritise user stories for an MVP release. A road mapping workshop kept all team members aligned.

— Improving UX through Content

One of the main reasons for our success was the strong collaboration with content producers. I worked closely with them to create and integrate a content strategy into the website structure to enhance the experience and make information more accessible. Our approach emphasised delivering content in four stages: Engagement, Conversion, Planning, and Additional Information. This allowed us to tailor the tone of the content to match the user’s journey, ensuring a consistent experience across the site.

For the engagement stage, the aim was to deliver a snapshot of the experience through imagery, headlines, and iconography. This extended to a more detailed description of the location. After the engagement, the aim was to convert users by highlighting places, camping areas, and tours within a park. The planning section aimed to simplify content with iconography and brief descriptions, delivering essential information quickly. Secondary information focused on necessary but less valuable content for most users.

— Wireframing and Critique

The design process started with low-fidelity wireframes, tested internally and refined based on feedback. This evolved into mid-fidelity prototypes, incorporating more detailed design elements and functionality and involving internal stakeholders and representative users for testing.

Each round of testing provided valuable insights, allowing for iterative improvements. Critique and continuous improvement helped refine the wireframes and prototypes to meet user needs and organisational goals effectively. Specific changes included simplifying the navigation structure, adjusting content presentation, and improving visual hierarchy.

— Treejacking and Usability Testing

Treejacking tests specifically helped us validate the effectiveness of the new navigation structure. Users were asked to find specific information, and we tracked their paths to identify any stumbling blocks. This testing phase confirmed that our simplified navigation significantly improved user experience.

Prototype usability testing involved users completing typical tasks, such as planning a visit or finding safety information. We measured task success rates, time on task, and gathered qualitative feedback. These tests ensured that the design not only looked good but also worked well in practice.

— UI Design: Minimalist and Clean

Marketing nature experiences relied heavily on the natural beauty of the locations to stand out. The focus was on beautiful lifestyle imagery and persuasive copywriting that attracted users to a location.

Simple, clean visual design layouts allowed lifestyle imagery and persuasive copywriting to stand out on the page. White space, minimalism, highlighting colours, and iconography all improved the readability and scannability of content, drove focus on key areas and alerts, and maintained an AA WCAG 2.2 Accessibility standard.

— Design System: Future-Proofing Design

As an MVP release with ongoing growth and improvement, it was essential to establish a style and library that could expand with the project. I created a design library using atomic pattern principles to ensure future modules and pages followed consistent design styles and were easily managed.

— Results and Impact

The redesigned Parks Victoria website showed significant improvements post-launch:

• An 83% increase in organic traffic in the first year.
• A 16% drop in the average bounce rate aligns with industry standards for similar sites.
• Increased engagement, evidenced by more clicks and longer time on page.
• Decreased common inquiries, better visitor distribution during peak times, and enhanced visitor safety by making critical information more accessible.