VISIT CALIFORNIA

Visit California asked Code and Theory to redesign the state’s primary tourism portal and encourage visitation by showcasing the state’s beauty, wealth of activities, and diverse geography. As creative director, I oversaw the entire visual design, user experience and strategy, and the agency received a 2015 Webbys Award for Best Association Site. We created a responsive publishing platform that encourages discovery by seamlessly guiding users through the state’s destinations, attractions, regions, trip ideas and events. 

To accomplish this, the browsing experience encourages exploration through cinematic large format imagery, lightweight text, and editorial modules that can be packaged according to themes. An example of the site’s simplicity in pathing users through content is a visitor who clicks San Francisco from the home page, discovers a road trip idea to LA, and consequently discovers a myriad of attractive destinations in southern California which informs his/her trip planning.

Working in close collaboration with Visit California and its content partner Sunset Magazine we vastly reduced the amount of content from the old site and created a system that allows them to create and repackage modular outfits of content based on season, browsing habits of the user and needs of local tourist organizations. The site was translated into ten languages which posed a challenging responsive design problem, but speaks to the universal accessibility and ambition we achieved with the relaunch. Please view the video below to learn more information about the mechanics of how we changed the face of California tourism.

AGENCY

Code and Theory
2013/14


ROLE

Creative Director


AWARDS + MENTIONS

2015 Webbys People's Choice Winner: Best Association Web Site


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