Visit Jersey has recently gone through a significant digital transformation with the redesign of their website and, as a consequence, of their entire digital journey. 

For any destination, the website is the first touchpoint with visitors and for that reason, it is key to ensure that it meets their needs and surpasses their expectations.

In this case study, we look at the strategy behind the website redesign and explore the best features that were implemented on the website.

A compilation of the best features

It is amazing to see how complete this new website is. It is the result of a long project done by the Visit Jersey team. They were able to achieve this as a small destination, mainly because they were focused on following digital best practices.

To start, we highlight the online portal at portal.jersey.com which was developed before the main consumer website. Businesses can register to upload and update their listings in this portal connected with the main website and with Algolia (a site search and discovery tech powered by AI) via an API to deliver a listing search facility.

It is important to use technologies like Algolia to create optimal and smarter user experiences. Algolia provides destination websites with a set of building blocks for creating the search experience that users expect - relevant, personalised, intuitive and fast. Dropdown menus with automatic suggestions also help people find questions faster.

This is indeed a huge challenge in destination websites, as it is hard to keep these records updated. The integration with Algolia may help businesses do this, by reducing the number of channels where they need to be maintained.

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Seeing how it has become a vehicle for building awareness amongst Jersey’s core markets and a key source of referrals for industry partners is great. According to their core markets, the website is also translated into two other languages - French and German.

Other incredible features, like the UGC integration or the intelligent site search, were also incorporated into this amazing website. It is quite remarkable how successful Visit Jersey was when doing all of this, as a small team.

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The Cherry on Top of the Cake

Through a user-friendly Content Management System, Visit Jersey was able to create a new mobile-first website that inspires visitors to travel to Jersey year-round. It starts from enticing them to book a holiday in Jersey to planning their on-island experiences, choosing where to stay, and a trip planner. 

This planner was created using a Mapbox integration with listing data. With Mapbox, Visit Jersey integrated custom live maps, location search, and turn-by-turn navigation into any device. This allows them to then curate and share customised itineraries on the website.

Mapbox enables a set of incredible features in destination and tourism businesses' websites, such as offline maps, the possibility to save favourite places and an interactive globe where users can look for inspiration and go beyond lists.

What is amazing about Mapbox is how it allows designers control over everything from colours and fonts, making it a seamless but powerful integration.

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This is why it is still relevant to have a database so that all that content can be seamlessly pulled into a great map experience like this one in Visit Jersey - with different icons, filtering options, dropdown menus and detailed information upon clicking, etc.

It is remarkable to see how the website is full of inspirational stories and itineraries, featuring an image-led design driven by powerful auto-cropping AI, interactive maps and more.

Overall, the website redesign showcases the uniqueness of 'The Island Break' by following all of the latest design trends regarding features, functionality, and web design and delivering a clear and consistent brand experience that supports the user journey. 

The integration of the product database, with features and templates throughout the site, including the interactive map, provides a seamless transition from inspiration and discovery to planning. On the other hand, the use of vertical content features carries over the visual-social-mobile discovery format users have become familiar with.