Data management and presentation for an interactive tourism portal
THE CHALLENGE
Working together with sentres, we have created an interactive travel guide and tour planner for the region of South Tyrol. Our primary focus is on a comprehensive Content Management System and an appealing user interface.
WHAT WE DID
- Collaborative Platform Design
- Implementation
- Continuous Development
Discover South Tyrol digitally
sentres is the ultimate travel guide and tour planner for South Tyrol – both online and on mobile devices. It offers the most beautiful tours, personalized accommodation recommendations, restaurants and chalets, as well numerous tips for shopping, natural and cultural attractions. It also provides detailed digital topographical maps of the region with hiking paths, mountain groups, peaks and valleys. All-in-one hiking and city map.
Comprehensive data
Over time, a comprehensive database has been developed about South Tyrol which remains unparalleled. On the sentres website, it is possible to discover around 5000 tours and more than 1500 attractions and hotels.
Behind every one of these tours and points of interest there is a dedicated page, allowing the user to experience the journey in advance and make the ideal plan. Everything is right there in one place, right up to contact details for the hotel.
Map configurator
The significant quantity and quality of sentres' data has led to the development of a spin-off product, for which we were also responsible.
The web app alpinemap.it serves as a configurator to create detailed, interactive maps. These maps can then be integrated into another application or website.
alpinemap.it also offers access to the sentres database and makes it possible for users to generate their own content within the sentres ecosystem.
Content Management System
Individual vs. standard software
Generally speaking, a standardized Content Management System (CMS) is the best choice for administering a large quantity of mainly text-heavy content and associated media.
There has to be a very good reason for developing an individualized system. Essential factors in making this decision include
- the underlying data,
- their presentation, as well as
- the processes to be realized.
Custom-built CMS
In order to achieve a very high level of content quality, the goal was to allow for the visual editing of pages based on numerous attributes. For this reason, we designed and built a custom Content Management System which would allow all of the data to be manipulated through what-you-see-is-what-you-get interactions.
This includes both simple building blocks, such as text and images, as well as the administration of tour routes displayed on maps, or linking individual elements with one another.
Searchability
Aside from the convenient administration of the content displayed, it is important that the user of the platform can simply and easily discover and recall the content created. For this purpose, we have used a search index which indexes all of the sentres content and makes it searchable by the user by means of a simple search field.
Furthermore, the user is able to select categories in various areas, thereby limiting the search in order to, for example, only search for simple hiking tours in a specific region.
Close collaboration and continuous development
Providing both consulting services and implementation, we have partnered with sentres since day one. Following the project phase, we remain responsible for the maintenance and continuous development of the site.
In the summer of 2016, a complete redesign was undertaken as the success of the portal had continued to grow following its introduction in 2009.
Photos copyright: Marketinggesellschaft Meran/Mario Entero
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