WELLINGTON, Friday: Events & visitor promotions guide WellingtonNZ – which aims to tell “the Wellington region’s story” – launches a new-look website this week.
The organisation is largely funded by the City Council and the Regional Council – but is run independently.
WellingtonNZ general manager Anna Calver said: “The new WellingtonNZ.com combines the best visual and written story-telling content from the region, with navigation technology which suggests further relevant content to users the more they use and travel around the site.
“The new website, which went live last week, is believed to be the first official destination website in the world to use this model.”
Calver says the way people are using websites has changed dramatically compared to when WellingtonNZ.com was first launched more than a decade ago.
“It was a directory on where to stay, visit, eat, drink, shop, study, do business and live in Wellington. You could even book your accommodation on the site.
“Since then Google has become more dominant, most local businesses now have their own websites and there has been a huge increase in travel and media sites offering similar information to what we were offering.
“So rather than compete with what others are doing, we’ve created a website that tells stories about Wellington’s best bits. It’s about showcasing the real Wellington, the people, and the place that we all call home – creating great content that people will engage with and share.
“The site was crafted by DNA Design and the WellingtonNZ in-house team.”
“We want to inspire people to have a Wellington experience, whether that be to visit, study, film, meet or do business. And we want to encourage locals to try a new restaurant, get on a trail, attend an event, and just re-fall in love with their region.”
The site was crafted by DNA Design and the WellingtonNZ in-house team. The agency’s Wellington-based technical director John Milmine says they designed the site with the intention of making it easier for users to explore the site and have something new to read or look at each time they visited.
“The old site was huge, but quite siloed,” he said. “Our team has been focussed on building a site that creates a view of Wellington which is relevant to each individual user.
“The site can automatically create pages for specific interests and has powerful filtering that both connects and spans the site.
“While our team has been focussed on the UX, design and development, we have also made massive improvements to the content on the site, the quality of the imagery and the introduction of atmospheric video brings the site to life.”
While the main launch is through WellingtonNZ.com, this content and user navigation model is being rolled out over all nine websites managed through WellingtonNZ.
CREDITS
Senior Digital Manager: Melanie Borich
Digital Specialist: Chris Dabb
Digital Project Specialist: Rich Beckett
Analytics and Audience Development Specialist: Julia Pearce
UX / Design
Experience Lead: Emily Reyes Hogan
Senior Designer: Anna-Marie Antipas
Digital Designer: Graham Mustard
Senior Experience Designer: Alastair Bruerton
Senior Production Manager: Joanne Maguire
PM
Senior Project Manager: Steph Cohen
Senior Project Manager: Kim Truscott
Developers
Technical Lead: Matt Bondi
Senior Developer: Alex Saelens
Senior Developer: Luke Edwards
Developer: Julian Thomson
Developer: Jenny Adams
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