AlaskaNavigator.org Progressive Web App
Brief
As Spawn Ideas’ digital partner, Alopex was tasked with overhauling DOT’s public facing project search system AlaskaNavigator.org. The original site was not responsive, alienating a majority of traffic to the site and suffered from multiple usability issues on both the front facing and engineer side of the website. After an audit of the user interfaces of the website, Alopex recommended a change of hosts, a migration to Drupal 8 (from Drupal 7), and a complete redesign.
Design
Working with our agency partner, Alopex wireframed and prototyped a new user interface that would be completely responsive. While the public facing site is quite simple, using a search to find specific projects and read about them, there is incredible complexity in the way that that data needed to be input. The site uses minimal colors and styles, the template system compresses logically from HD desktop, desktop, tablet, to mobile.
Development
AlaskaNavigator.org is constructed on Drupal 8. Project engineers, managers, marketers, and administrators have access to different tools on the backend of the site, allowing projects to be precisely mapped and managed. A major aspect of the overhaul was the integration of Google Maps for project mapping—project managers can easily add routes, draw boundaries, and search for projects in a refined interface that scales beautifully for visitors to the website. Categorization of projects is automatic and makes finding a project a smooth process—using either the project search or the interactive map with custom designed markers.
Results
The new AlaskaNavigator.org saves all parties managing it a ton of time and money. With a refined content input system on the backend, procedures take far less time and are more responsive to the user’s environment and needs. The redesign has allowed users to access information on-the-go and the results are beginning to show in Google Analytics. As of writing this, mobile page views are up 150% over the previous year, tablet is up by over 20%, and desktop by almost 70%. The migration to Drupal 8 and managed hosting through Pantheon has made the website far faster, earning exemplary results in almost every test that can be performed on it.
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