Discover Ireland
Discover Ireland is operated by Fáilte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority, and features comprehensive information and listings for Irish accommodation, activities, events, tourist attractions and Irish holiday special offers.
Project Objectives:
Objective 1: Develop World Class Destination Marketing website
- Provision of credible, current and accurate information to domestic holiday makers
- Motivate the desire for holiday planning in Republic of Ireland
- Support & showcase the Irish Tourism Industry
Objective 2: Improved User Experience
- Complete modernisation of the look and feel
- Logical self service environment
- Revised information architecture
- Exposed entry points to key content areas and calls to action
- TCS database integration
- Improved on page and database search facilities
- Development of campaign sites to promote specific tourism products
Objective 3: Increase Revenue Generation For Domestic Tourism Proposition Providers
Our Approach
The Discover Ireland project was commissioned in 2 phases. The initial phase was template design and HTML development. These designs were then integrated onto the existing website functionality.
The purpose of the initial phase was to help Failte Ireland ensure their web presence was complementary to all of their off line campaign material. There was also a need to modernise the old design.
biznet IIS made no amendments to the website information architecture in this first phase. Navigation elements all remained the same, as did main calls to action and website functionality. The project was viewed as re-skin as opposed to a full redesign and development.
biznet IIS worked closely with the Failte Ireland Consumer and Destination marketing teams, E-Business team and the project management teams. Communication was managed through weekly meetings either face to face in Dublin or via conference call facilities.
Design workshops were conducted to ensure biznet IIS had full comprehension of the clients’ needs and also to present our initial interpretations. The process of design refinement took roughly one month to achieve before we went into the HTML development piece of the project.
The website design had to retain the AA accessibility standard required by Failte Ireland so this was at the fore throughout the design and development process.
For phase2, biznet IIS completed a design and development overhaul of www.discoverireland.ie, Ireland’s premier destination marketing website.
Marketed extensively through a range of on and offline media, the site is one of the top 3 most visited sites in Ireland and is considered the main portal for anyone interested in planning a holiday, break or day away in Ireland.
The main objectives of the overhaul were to present a clean, contemporary, less cluttered design and to deliver a more user-centric experience through improved navigation, logical information architecture, clear calls to action and enhanced interactivity.
An intensive planning phase included focus group testing, information architecture workshops, wireframe development and in-house objective setting. The output of these exercises enabled biznet IIS to recommend the most appropriate design and development solution for this key website.
The Work:
The new homepage offers clear entry points into the main sections of the website, as well as allowing users to search for regional and county based content through a flash based interactive map. The flash based header graphic keeps the homepage fresh but also allows Failte Ireland to promote specific campaigns or tourist elements. This type of dynamic advertising is featured throughout the site, enabling proactive campaign management as and when required.
With a broad user demographic, it was essential to cater for all levels of Internet experience so the site is peppered with easy to use search functions, enabling the user to filter by content type, geographical region and context based attributes. Google search was implemented as the main site search however the next phase of the project will investigate the feasibility of an improved search function, tailored specifically to work with Failte Ireland’s tourism content database.
Furthermore, Google Maps were integrated to enhance user experience by facilitating route planning and local amenity retrieval.
The site has been developed using Kentico version 4 CMS, allowing the centralisation and easy management of all regional and product / campaign sub sites. Integrated workflow, access rights and monitored content publishing ensures content integrity and consistency across the site.
Discover Ireland will continue to evolve to meet the ever changing needs of the consumer. User behaviour will be monitored by the biznet IIS analytics team to ensure the site continues to support these needs and to help us recommend site developments in the medium and long term.
View the Website