I have always found that tourism websites are an incredible hassle. They are very often, a crammed, convoluted mess. Rather than being helpful, they are often stressful to navigate and use. Through my travels, I have found that almost every tourism website was an information dump rather than being something that I was looking for, something simple to cover the essentials - Where do I stay? Where to go? What to do? How do I get around the place?. I wished there was a website that was elegant and minimal that helped me cover the essentials aforementioned.

So when I registered this domain (although the custom domain name hasn’t been used in this project) , I was excited that I could do something I believe provides value to people who are like me, who want the essentials in a tourism website and also like minimalistic websites with high-res graphics. I believe that as this project matures over time, it will turn into a viable business which will be a boost for me.

This is how this project came about.

The project’s target market: This website is for people like me, who want the essentials from a tourism website (Where do I stay? Where to go? What to do? How do I get around the place?). It is for people who appreciate and prefer a website which is minimalistic and focused with a pleasing, easy to use design combined with high-resolution graphics/imagery which makes it appealing and also a pleasure to use.

What my target audience wants to achieve: The goal of my target market would be to go on the website and find information regarding the “essentials” for their trip. That is, the accommodation that they require, the things that they can do when they get there, the help they can get via day-tours and such that help them explore the place they are visiting better. These are the needs that I have based the layout of my website on, my four main sections then being accommodation, things-to-do, travel and tours.

How my project will help the audience achieve their goals: Since the goals of my audience is to find accommodation, things to do, find good tours that will help them explore the place better, they will be well served by my four dedicated pages - accommodation, things-to-do, travel and tours. The aim is that by compiling a list of options in each of the four categories mentioned above, it makes the process of exploring and finding the best fit for your needs a little bit easier.

The ‘Did You Know’ section was added in order to add a bit of personality to the site.

Why the large imagery?

While we are on the topic of UX, let me also explain my choice of large imagery on the website.

Large, high-resolution imagery not only helps my site stand out, it also makes it appealing to the users. This ties into my monetisation plan, which is also a factor for my choice of large imagery. It is in my experience that people don’t mind adverts as long as they are not in your face and blend into the content. The success of sites like WeTransfer and Unsplash, who have used this advertising model, where the ads are high-quality content, and blend in with the website shows that this is a very good way of monetising your platform.

Following on the heels of my explanation, here are the wireframes that I’ve built for my website using Adobe XD.

Link - wireframes

Home - A fresh feeling landing page that welcomes the audience with large, inspirational, imagery.

Accommodation - This page contains a list of different accommodation options that link to external websites.

Things-To-Do - This page contains a list of different things that the audience might want to do in Dublin.

Tours - This page contains a list of different tours that might help the audiences explore the place better.

Home - A fresh feeling landing page that welcomes the audience with large, inspirational, imagery.

Accommodation - This page contains a list of different accommodation options that link to external websites.

Things-To-Do - This page contains a list of different things that the audience might want to do in Dublin.

Tours - This page contains a list of different tours that might help the audiences explore the place better.

• Ability to hide any list items more than 6 in a section and load them when clicked on a ‘see more’ button.

This project makes use of the following technologies:

• Html
• CSS
• Bootstrap for CSS and Javascript built on jQuery
• Chrome developer tools
• w3c markdown and css validator

Testing for responsiveness: Google Chrome developer tools.

Testing CSS: w3C CSS validator

Testing HTML: w3C HTML/Markdown validator

Here is a link to the deployed live site: tourismdublin.com

The site has been hosted on GitHub Pages.

The media I have used is free for personal and commercial use and has been taken from Beautiful Free Images & Pictures | Unsplash

I would like to thank my mentors Seun Owonikoko and Xavier for their direction and help.