Tourism Research Website Redesign
We were thoroughly impressed with Optimal Usability’s whole approach. They followed a strong methodology that not only gives us confidence in our direction, but we ended up with a solution that we wouldn't have got to ourselves. We have ended up with a clear deliverable that we could give to developers. It gave us clarity and was a great way to communicate our requirements.- Mark Miller, Web Manager, Ministry of Tourism
The need
The Ministry of Tourism were redesigning their research website. The Tourism Research website provides data and analysis for the New Zealand tourism industry. It has a wide range of visitors from the general public to Tourism analysts and academics requiring very specific and detailed data. The data comes from a variety of sources and then needs to be presented consistently - no mean feat.
The approach
Ministry of Tourism initially engaged Optimal Usability to complete an expert review to detail the usability and user experience issues with the current research website. The report uncovered 115 usability findings, including issues with the information architecture.
So what would the ideal information architecture look like? Optimal Usability completed online card sorts with 52 users using OptimalSort then iterated the structure internally in workshops to come up with an information architecture that was tested and practical.
Finally Optimal Usability completed wireframe designs for key pages on the new website such as the homepage, and key level 2 and 3 pages.
The outcomes
Since the relaunch in May 2008, average pages per session and average session times are both up by over 25%. Overall web traffic increased by 10%.
See other case studies
- Ministry of Economic Development - Companies Office website redesign
- Air New Zealand - Multiple Channel Usability
- Taking XtraMSN to the next level
- Redesigning doc.govt.nz
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