Web design explore tualatin valley on laptop

Case Study

Explore Tualatin Valley

Website Redesign

“Explore Tualatin Valley” is Washington County, Oregon’s regional tourism organization. While not as widely known as other Oregon destinations, Tualatin Valley is home to a variety of experiences, from shopping malls to wine tasting to wilderness adventures. They engaged us to help redesign and improve the structure of their aging website as part of a brand refresh and social campaign launch.

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Challenge

Though eager to attract regional visitors, the organization’s current site felt bland and dated, overwhelmed by years of accumulated content and poor navigation. The new site needed to be an inspiring reflection of Explore Tualatin Valley’s updated look, and integrate external data streams in a seamless way that didn’t bog down the site. Alongside creating the technical architecture, the client also needed us to provide guidance on visual and information design.

Our objectives:

  • Create a design taxonomy that felt unified with other media while preventing the accumulation of “one-off” styles
  • Find new opportunities to portray the brand’s unique personality while putting a smile on users’ faces
  • Create and govern a navigation and content hierarchy that made content easy to find
  • Create a site that works well on phones and supports accessibility

In a Nutshell

We took a site that was bland and dated in terms of the visual branding, with disorganized content that was hard to find, and created a site that is tasty, fun, visually appealing, more effective and more organized for a wider audience. All while serving the client’s goals by providing design leadership.

Explore tualatin valley website design montage

Leveraging the Word “Explore”

As we set out to create a site that is both useful and delightful, we wanted to extend the region’s invitation to “Explore.” So we created a visual reference for the region itself, through a simple map graphic showing Tualatin Valley’s proximity to well-known Oregon destinations. We also made sure the main navigation pathways — Eat & Drink, Things to Do, Places to Stay, and Events — were easy to find and explore further, using integrated maps and event calendars. 

Through it all, we incorporated the eclectic design scheme of the new brand campaign with the restraint and consistency needed to maintain a pleasing online experience.

Explore tualatin valley web design what's great feature

Explore tualatin valley web design sample lodging guide
Web design home page explore tualatin valley
Explore tualatin valley web design sample trip ideas

Explore Tualatin Valley website icons

Getting Organized

Where the previous content hierarchy was basically flat, we created a system that allows users to browse high-level categories, such as Farm Experiences, then learn more through filtered lists of related POIs (points of interest). This organizational system not only improves browsability and search engine performance, it’s automatically gathered and organized with minimal effort for the client.

Explore tualatin valley website design sample page intros

Under the Hood

Along with visual design challenges came even bigger technical challenges. In addition to creating a large, custom, client-editable site, we integrated multiple external data streams — POIs from SimpleView, events from Travel Oregon’s OTIS, and email marketing from MailChimp. This required a team effort of creative problem-solving and code solutions to address various significant performance issues.

Explore tualatin valley web design map feature

Creative Options

In most projects, we develop a lot of creative options to extend the client’s visual brand — options which don’t always get used. But that’s okay. Our clients recognize they can rely on us to generate new ideas and offer informed direction as we all pursue the best solutions.

Explore tualatin valley icon detail

Explore tualatin valley icons not used

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Results

Anecdotal feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with the client giving us high marks for our commitment to supporting them through testing, training, troubleshooting, and additional requests. 

 

Traffic numbers haven’t been too shabby, either.

733%

Increase in Organic Search Users
(YoY)

250%

Increase in Home Page Traffic
(YoY)

87%

Increase in Visits to Trip Ideas
(YoY)

Let’s talk about your project.

We’ll do a lot of listening, and always look to offer good advice. This could be the start of something great.

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