Arizona Trail Website
Overview & Challenge
The Arizona Trail Association selected me out of a number of potential bids to completely redesign their website. The old site was horribly outdated, was constantly being hacked, and was only accessible by their part-time webmaster/IT employee. He was struggling to keep the site live and healthy as the popularity of the website grew. In addition, it was not mobile responsive and since the site was used by hikers via their phones while on the trail, it was inaccessible.
The client wanted a modern and clean, fast and mobile-responsive website that included an e-commerce solution, a blog to post trail updates, an interactive map, as well as a private membership-only section.
Positive response was immediate and overwhelming. Time on site increased, membership increased dramatically, and the AZTrail website truly matched the quality of the trail itself.
This is one of the sites and designs I am most proud of.
Audience
International audience looking to find out more about the Arizona Trail and everything it has to offer.
Approach
I spent many hours researching other hiking websites, interviewing employees and trail users of all types (hikers, bikers and equestrians). I researched and found a good hosting company, completed a thorough site audit, wireframes built out and approved, and hundreds of pages of content was converted into a wonderful and clean WordPress-based website. I also conducted numerous video training sessions with employees, created user and style guides, and maintained the site for a few months.
As with all website work I do, the project starts with a thorough site audit to ensure navigation and page hierarchy is clear and concise. Once that is complete, wireframes are supplied to the client showing the home page and a couple sample internal pages (depending on needs). The next step is static design comps created in InDesign/Illustrator/Photoshop and once that is approved, the final sight is built using a custom theme coded by me in the WordPress CMS. Training is also provided for the client so they can edit the site themselves.
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