Website revitalization
The revitalization of Toronto’s waterfront is the largest urban redevelopment project currently underway in North America, and is one of the largest waterfront revitalization efforts ever undertaken in the world.
Waterfront Toronto has a 25-year mandate to transform 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of brownfield lands on the waterfront into beautiful, sustainable mixed-use communities and dynamic public spaces.
Special one-time funding for the migration of Waterfront Toronto’s website to a content management system presented an opportunity to significantly improve the usability and marketing capabilities of the site. The new site was designed to showcase the significant planning, design and construction work completed or underway for most of the projects. It would serve to increase transparency around decisions and awarded contracts, and further engage the many stakeholders in the revitalization of Toronto’s waterfront.
Our senior consultant worked in association with creative services agency Hahn Smith Design and Development partner Media Platforms. We conducted a User Study to inform the proposed website navigation structure and labelling. To meet objectives for the new website, we provided:
- An action-oriented navigation structure that encourages exploration and discovery
- Easy to scan content on project developments presented in bite-size chunks that present key messages while prompting further exploration.
- Improved visual richness of the website user experience, showcasing the ongoing progress of projects and areas under development and completed.
- Interactive maps that contextualize project plans and progress
- Means to demonstrate the scope and scale of the revitalization effort: from providing a comparison of other waterfront projects around the world to the ability to find projects by area, development status and type from the navigation bar and the interactive map.
- A design framework for social media integration to be used in building public engagement and support
- Subscriptions to the electronic newsletter and RSS feeds available globally.
- A document library linked to the calendar, enabling stakeholders to find documents related to specific meetings and events, planning and decision making — supporting the organization’s commitment to transparency and accountability.
- Training and guidelines for the in-house web content team to plan content strategically, write for web audiences and use the range of widgets and layout options to improve user experience.