Visa Wellington on a Plate is the biggest event on Wellington's calendar, a month-long region-wide culinary takeover. It’s about people coming together to celebrate and support Wellington’s amazing foodies. 2021 has seen us integrate a total redesign of their brand on the website, a super-bumper culinary weekend holding all the offerings plus Beervana simultaneously, as well as animate their amazing new illustrations with parallax effects on the homepage keeping the playfulness of the brand. Curated wish lists have also received some love this year, with the WOAP team being able to promote themed lists with a mix of Dine, Events, Burgers and Cocktails. The map has been maintained and improved, so you can find Festival offerings near where you work, play, or stay and explore options outside of your usual to-go places.
We built on the user-interviews and UX research we've done in the past, and set out to create a website that makes you HUNGRY! So, we feature the food being served everywhere - let your eyes do the choosing before you dive into the detail. Planning your Festival activities however can’t be done on an empty stomach.
With 152 events, 69 dine menus, 81 cocktails and a whopping 254 burgers; there's a LOT of data for our fans to grapple with. All that data is a whole lot more digestible with some sweet filtering, and some tasty extras such as the ability to create your own wish list, which you can then sort into (shareable) lists. With a growing number of filter requirements, we have reviewed the UX of the filters on both mobile and desktop and, separately, improved the way they work. Now, narrowing down your favourite burger (with side), and finding it again, is easy.
After many years of success with this Festival, we wanted to take what we've learnt about Visa WOAP over the years and create a site that truly works for its users. With so many mouth-watering photos to load, a dynamic map, and literally hundreds of simultaneous visitors, we have ensured the performance of the site is fast and responsive. The analytics speak for themselves - thousands of users accessing the website before, during and after the festival, and hundreds signing up every day.
At the end of the Festival season we also do careful analysis to find interesting trends and where we got increased user engagement. These are then visualised in infographic form for easy reference - that helps inform our thinking for next year’s Festival - it’s a job of constant improvement! Besides, it’s fascinating to look into user behaviours; who knew fried chicken would be the number 1 searched item in 2019?