Florida State Parks encompass the majority of lands that fall under the authority of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and include nature reserves, recreation areas, and historic sites. With a mission to provide resource-based recreation while also working to preserve, interpret and restore natural and cultural resources, the Florida State Parks provide visitors with a variety of services.

As their resources and services continued to grow, Florida State Parks needed to create a positive brand perception through a cohesive website that effectively serves staff, visitors, and volunteers. Staff needed to easily update website information and utilize digital storytelling opportunities to better help people experience and explore Florida’s 175 award-winning natural and cultural sites.

Building an engaging digital experience

To ensure the success of the new website, Forum One conducted a stakeholder discovery workshop and internal and external audience interviews, led a detailed heuristic review of the existing site, and held usability tests with representatives from key audience groups. We also developed personas for the site’s key audiences and conducted a content inventory of the site’s more than 20,000 pages of content in line with best practices that encourage engagement from site visitors.

After extensive research, Forum One worked with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to redesign the Florida State Parks website in Drupal 8. The new site allows visitors to quickly and intuitively find inspirational and practical information for planning a visit and easily access high-priority information, such as park hours, directions, entrance fees, and activities.