The Town of The Blue Mountains

Multiple sites introduced with user testing for charismatic town

The Town of the Blue Mountains really does have it all. The town is located on the Niagara Escarpment, with a beautiful blend of countryside and the sparkling Georgian Bay. The Town is well known as a year round destination for residents, visitors and businesses, offering unique natural beauty, adventurous attractions and relaxing activities. In order to increase resident engagement and promote its happenings, the Town needed a full-scale website redesign on all of its sites. Upanup provided website development with user feedback to improve the Town's Library and Museum, Tourism, and Main Municipal sites.

Visit thebluemountains.ca

Services Provided

  • Website Design & Development
  • Website Hosting
  • Website Improvements
  • Website Maintenance
  • Website Support
  • Accessible Design
  • Custom Tools & Features
  • User-focused Design
  • Integrated Online Tools
  • Multi-site System
  • Project Management
  • User Experience Testing

The Challenge

With a growing population of 7,000 and a visitor presence of over 2.5 million annually, the Town of The Blue Mountains needed organized, user friendly websites that could help users find what they wanted as soon as possible. The Town also wanted to clarify the needs of the target users that would be using the site and implement any feedback provided.
 
The Town of The Blue Mountains needed an up-to-date, streamlined main site that could help redirect users to relevant resources. The design had to be a unique, colourful expression of the town that guided users eyes to important content. The requirements also included being easily searchable and meeting accessibility standards (WCAG 2.0 Level AA for AODA at the time – see web accessibility for more information).
 
The Town also needed a number of smaller sites to provide information on more specific topics:
  • A searchable Library & Museum microsite for informative information.
  • A Tourism microsite promoting local attractions.
A screenshot of the Town of The Blue Mountains homepage, with a large image banner of Georgian Bay.
One screenshot of the The Blue Mountains Library homepage on desktop, and another on mobile.

The Solution

Upanup took on this unique challenge with an intentional and effective approach. These projects were strongly rooted in user feedback and ensuring the website was optimized for any type of user.
 
After the early versions of the new sites had been finished, Upanup conducted user testing through city Council members with seven residents of varying age and capabilities to ensure the website was easy to use for anyone. Participants were given a scenario or task to complete on the website and asked to provide feedback on how easy the task was to carry out and identify any possible pain points someone could run into within the website.
 
Once testing had been completed, Upanup incorporated this user feedback, accessibility standards for the municipal website, and the Town's specific requests to create the best websites possible.
 

Unique Features

The new websites have many unique features, including:
  •  Current Projects & Initiatives page includes Planning & Development Projects, Municipal Infrastructure Projects, and Strategic Projects & Initiatives. Each project/initiative has the ability for public users to follow it for update notifications; see the timeline for the project; and see all related documents, links, and engagement opportunities.
  • Business directory tool on the Town's Tourism site for the promotion of hundreds of local businesses. This tool included new social media links, images, and purchase options to improve visitor engagement with local businesses.
One screenshot of the Explore Blue homepage on desktop, and another on mobile.
An inside page from the Town of The Blue Mountains website. This page is on the Town’s current projects and initiatives.

The Results

After Upanup conducted user feedback and identified key spots to improve on, The Town of The Blue Mountains released their refreshing new Library and Museum, Tourism, and Main Municipal sites. 
 
The Town now has three streamlined sites that:
  • Promote user engagement,
  • Provide easy access to important information, and
  • Reflect the unique charm of the the Blue Mountains.
All three sites were met with positive feedback by users and were quoted as incredibly user friendly. 

Related Work

Are you curious to see more projects like this one? We’ve selected a couple relatable case studies which you can find below.