Modernizing the Northwest Territories Parks on Drupal

Evolving Web upgraded and redesigned the Northwest Territories Parks website, enhancing the client’s digital presence with a migration to the latest version of Drupal. We developed a new front-end and back-end architecture. We focused on creating a visually engaging and user-friendly website that highlights the natural beauty of the 34 Northwest Territories parks while streamlining the content management process. The new website showcases stunning park landscapes and comprehensive park information, provides up-to-date wilderness advisories, and integrates advanced features such as an interactive map.

The Northwest Territories Government Parks Division manages the natural parks and protected areas across the Northwest Territories – one of the three federal territories in Canada. Known for its breathtaking landscapes and diverse ecosystems, the territory attracts visitors from all over the world, keen to see the unique landscapes first-hand. The web division aims to provide comprehensive information and an engaging digital experience to both locals and tourists.

The primary goal of this project was to redesign and upgrade the public-facing Northwest Territories Parks website, to make planning a trip to a park more convenient for visitors and relieve the Parks staff in answering inquiries from the public. The project set out to create a website featuring a modern and attractive design, incorporating features found on similar government websites and reflecting the region's natural beauty. 

We also wanted to be more consistent in applying the NWT Parks design brand. Other needs included providing users with helpful information for setting their itinerary and featuring timely alerts to visitors while they were using the parks.
 

The client made the decision to move away from the original system of categorizing parks and activities by key trails and routes in the ‘Explore’ section. Instead, the new site needed to focus on the users’ immediate needs, such as planning a visit or a road trip, traveling with pets, or requiring accessibility accommodations. 

Building a feature-rich map with search filters and multiple park markers required significant customization and optimization because a lot of data needs to be loaded into search results displayed on a map. A lot of time was devoted to usability testing of the map. The client considered multiple options for grouping search results when the locations listed were close to each other. The final map solution had to incorporate clear labeling. 

Evolving Web migrated the Northwest Territories Parks website to the latest version of Drupal. We worked with the Government of the NT staff to identify the functionality that needed to be preserved or updated. We devised improved content management workflows for the Parks’ small digital team to build visually engaging content.

The key deliverables included:

• Migrating the site to the latest version of Drupal, enhancing performance and security
• Integrating a theme powered by TailwindCSS for the front-end architecture
• Embedding the existing camping reservation system, powered by CAMIS, in the new site
• Developing and integrating a new system to empower content editors: they can build new content, mixing and matching rich components in a single page, without developer intervention
• Creating a striking visual design aligned with the NWT Parks brand and showcasing the natural beauty of the Northwest Territories
• Setting up a color-coded advisory system to notify park visitors about important seasonal events and crisis preparedness
• Efficient build of an interactive map with advanced search and filter capabilities; integrating Search API with Solr 8 and Google Maps to showcase all the park features
• Supplying promotional writing to inform and intrigue visitors about all that the NT nature has to offer, both online and via informational brochures distributed by the government agency
• Streamlining content entry and management processes, with a focus on making the system easy to use and maintain for the client’s small digital team
   

The redesigned Northwest Territories Parks website offers a modern, secure interface that effectively showcases the region's natural beauty and provides valuable information to various user personas. It is a visually appealing site that improves navigation and accessibility in line with the client’s preference, moving away from a shortlist of locations to a comprehensive info point that is easy to navigate. 

Delivering on the high expectations of both Northwest Territories locals and visitors, the site saves users time on learning about the various parks and planning an itinerary. The dynamic advisory system feature, with alerts sorted by severity and importance, gives the Parks staff a way to distribute notifications about emergency weather conditions and facility closures up to date. This workflow contributes to reducing the load on the staff, which is a key result for a small digital team.