10.02.09
webpick of the week
Travel/Tourism, Consumer
The “everything cycling” site for Travel Oregon is an online resource for cyclists living in and visiting Oregon. From road routes to mountain biking trails to cycling-related events and resources, there’s something for every cyclist and every skillset. It’s the centerpiece of Travel Oregon's initiative to highlight the state as a cycling travel and tourism destination.
Through initial focus groups, the developer found that the first thing riders determined, when deciding on what kind of ride to go on, was whether they were going on- or off-road. By segmenting the main content into sections titled Road Routes, Mountain Biking Trails and Cycling Events, the developers have created focused “home pages” for each audience (returning riders launch directly into their riding-style home page. Finally, the Oregon by Bike section let's people explore Oregon from a cyclist's perspective, providing cycling-specific information about the cities and towns across Oregon.
Community is a huge part of celebrating the ride. With this in mind, the site’s primary function is to let people discover rides and events. With a fairly limited marketing budget, the site relies on a vocal and passionate cycling community to promote this tourism initiative. Community members can contact each other to act as “ride ambassadors,” passing on their ride knowledge and add additional notes to any ride or event. The community is also asked to contribute their own favorite rides and events to further build site content through their personal knowledge and experience. Finally, riders can plan cycling trips by finding lodging, food and bicycle support services near each of the routes and events and those interested in doing rides can find other interested riders (making real-life connections, facilitated through technology).
• The site took seven people nine months (from initial brand creation to launch) to build.
• RSS feeds are utilized across the site so people can subscribe to discover new rides and events.
• The Find a Ride navigation at the top of the site allows people to quickly find whatever kind of ride or event they’re looking for, no matter where they are on the site.
• The latest Flash player is required for all mapping data.
• Using Google Maps to map all road routes was challenging since driving directions are usually not cycling-specific; it involved some work to figure out how to provide routes that wouldn’t put people on interstates, that would show elevation data would work around the limitations of showing only 25 points per map record.
• Since the site launched at the beginning of August, over 20,000 visitors have visited it.
• Plans for a mobile version are in the works.
findsubstance.com