Case Study 4.10

Happy Cog and Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation GPTMC

 

The original website for the GPTMC which was hosted at www.gophila.com. It is now available as an archive: http://archive.visitphilly.com/

New improved website: http://www.visitphilly.com

 

1. What role did navigation and usability play in the redesign of the website?

The navigation should guide users easily through both top-level and deeper pages. Navigation should also let the user know where they are in the site (especially as not all users arrive via the home page!). Without navigation users will not be able to quickly and easy find the information they are after. If you just had one big page with no navigation people will not stay and look at your site. Usability is about making the digital assets we build easy and intuitive to use. Usability is important to a website as if user can't use the page they will leave and not look through your website. Without navigation and usability a website will not be user friendly and will not get used.

2. Why was the addition of social layers important in the redesign?

With today age of the internet being so easily available and social media get bigger by the day, social media communication is a must in an organisation that they keep up with these trends. Links to Facebook, twitter, YouTube, email etc. are now getting put on every site, it may be for the site as I whole or an article you wish to share. Individuals have the chance to follow a website which allows the website to keep in touch with them more frequently and easily. It gives the website the power to connect and interact with their followers. This helps reach a larger target audience.

3. Why did the developers decide to consolidate the content management platforms?

The old system that was being used was hard to use. This made it hard to update the site quickly and efficiently and caused many outdated problems. The new designers decided to change to a new management platform called Expression Engine (EE), this meant that many people could then work on the website, even if they all had different understandings of how the website worked. This made functioning and updating of the website much easier and quicker, upgrading its overall efficiency. This allows the latest deal at Philly and any warning that are needed to be communicated to travellers.

4. Having considered the case study, discuss in general terms what role you now understand a website plays in an overall digital marketing strategy.

The role of digital marketing has got increasingly popular over the last decade. The internet is always to first place someone will look up information, products etc. Without a usability and easy to navigated website there will be little usage of that site. People want to be able to get to the information quickly and easily, as we do not like wasting time look for it, the faster the better. Website are the used on a daily bases for everything we want form shopping to selling or just information on something you wanted to know. Website with some interaction are coming increasing popular too. They will give the user something to look at or how it looks, instead of just a page fill of type lines, this is very important for the shopping market. Without website who knows where we will get all the information we want, products or holiday locations. If your business doesn't have a website you are behind times and will be losing market share and people will not know you.