Wharariki Beach Website
For this project I was tasked with creating a marketing website for a 'local attraction' somewhere in New Zealand. I chose to make it for Wharariki Beach in Golden Bay, right where my childhood home is.
Target Audience & Persona
First I created a target audience for my project. I chose to focus on young German tourists, one of the most common tourists in Golden Bay over Summer. Once I had that, I then created a persona so I could further understand how to create the marketing style for my website.
Subject Matter Research
I researched other tourism marketing websites layouts in order to better understand how to create my own. This included page layout, navigation, and UI (buttons, images).
Site Structure
Next I created a sitemap and wireframes to experiment with the layout of my site, while also implementing some of the features I wanted to include for my website.
Mood board & Generated Content
Finally I collected a mood board of what I wanted to focus on for my local attraction. I settled on the nature at Wharariki beach, the sand, cliffs, exposure to the sea, the Wharariki flax it's named after, the seal colony, and the iconic Archway Islands.
Because of this I made my colour palette match this. I went for more dull colours to match a more "natural" aspect of the location. I also made the Archway Islands my logo as it is the most iconic feature of the location, even being a Windows home screen.
Creating the website
Finally I had to code the website using HTML and CSS. This process was straight-forward after my research. I also surveyed others in my class, friends, and family in order to get feedback on user testing for my site. Using their responses I was able to make refinements which I believe helped me create a project which would appeal to my original target audience.
