Amazing Space
Visit Site: www.amazingspace.co.nz
Project Overview
Amazing Space is the Mt Hutt Marketing Group's (MHMG) brand for the Methven region. After working with Cabbage Tree for a number of years MHMG opted to employ another web development company based in Australia. After a year, however, they returned to Cabbage Tree because of our efficient TourismData system. Since their return the website has evolved from a static, destination brochure-style site to a dynamic, interactive community asset.
The Brief
The original brief was relatively open and the MHMG website committee asked us for our recommendations on design and direction. The budget was limited so there was a need for short term, quick wins and more medium term development.
Our Solution
Plan: We provided the web committee with our initial assessment of the existing site and recommended a more interactive approach to maximise the community feel of the Methven Mt Hutt Village destination. We also suggested the incorporation of tools that would encourage visitors to come to the site time and again for up-to-date information. Taking an honest self appraisal of our own website design limitations was an important step, acknowledging that design needs change and new technologies demand a fresh approach.
Initial Development: 'Picking the low hanging fruit' was the initial focus so we could incorporate tools we already had to hand, such as snow report integration, a refresh of the homepage and event profiling. By delivering a quick early success for the wider marketing group, the web development committee could build more support for further changes in the new financial period.
Applications: A range of applications have been implemented on the site that focus on delivering up-to-date information and visitor feedback. These include webcam links, news feeds, event listings, web comments from third parties, snow reports, operator listings, special offers, an online community noticeboard and job advertisements.
Alongside the applications the client required a design that could draw all of these elements together in an easy to navigate fashion. The design also needed to be flexible to change between the region's winter focus of skiing and its summer focus of walkways and outdoor activities.
TourismData: The site uses TourismData, our award winning tourism database system that not only enables the comprehensive display of product information with interactive map searches but also integrates seamlessly with online availability services, Qualmark ratings, jobs and special offers. The ease of use of the system and the comprehensive nature of the database was a fundamental reason for MHMG's return to Cabbage Tree Creative.
Success Factors
The single most important factor in the development and ultimate success of this site is a dedicated and skillful website manager who has been able to encourage participation and motivate the local community to update their information. Community sites of this nature need a website champion that can keep the information flow circulating. Cabbage Tree provides the easy to use software and integration but only the site owner has the power to engage the community and take ownership of the content.
The Cabbage Tree team involved in the project were:
Project Manager:
Brian Westwood
Lead Designer:
Matt Nuthall
Development:
Jonathan Copson
Vicky Wilson