Case Studies - Yosemite National Park Association

NonProfit Association  |  Yosemite National Park Association  |  www.yosemite.org

Opportunity & Challenge

As one of the most popular national parks in America, Yosemite had a need to provide information to prospective park visitors planning a vacation or weekend excursion.  The Yosemite association is a nonprofit membership organization that provides opportunities for people to learn about, enjoy and experience Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada. The website has a good bit of depth in terms of information, includes an online store for selling gifts and collectibles, and serves members of the association.  Despite the great popularity of their website and extensive traffic, the appearance of the website left quite a bit to be desired, management was difficult and cumbersome, and online shopping was an experience separated from the main site.  Additional challenges of this project included integration to Microsoft Navision accounting software and a membership management system for auto generation of association member logins. 

Strategy

Capitalize on the natural beauty of Yosemite and bring that out through a new website design using rich imagery and gentle earth tones.  Create a user friendly structure that gives easy access to information about visiting the park, the goals of the association, and products available for purchase.  

Solution

The design of the new Yosemite.org website is one that Speartek takes great pride in.  The balance of aesthetic appeal with user friendly functionality was achieved with great success.  When the site initially launched in the spring of 2009, it was already integrated with the clients accounting system. 

Continued Success

The Yosemite.org website continues to be very popular for guidance on park visits, online shopping, or visiting their real time gallery that has a live feed from cameras throughout the park.  A typical month will have approximately 100,000 unique website visitors. Resources at Yosemite are now using the Speartek Email Broadcast feature to keep members and park visitors up to date on association news and events. 

Client

Fast Facts

• Custom designed website
• User experience planning for access to park visit information, association membership, online shopping
• Retail ecommerce
• Real time online image gallery through cameras positioned within the park
• Membership login & discounted pricing
• Integration to Microsoft Navision