Unterbacher See Zweckverband
Everyone who has or was a child in and around Düsseldorf knows the Unterbacher See. The beautiful local recreation area in the middle of the Eller Forst nature reserve, with an area of 83.6 hectares, is an institution in Düsseldorf.
The Unterbacher See is diverse. There are lidos, sailing school and boat rental, camping sites, barbecue and playgrounds and of course gastronomy. All this has to be managed by the Zweckverband Erholungsgebiet Unterbacher See, a public corporation.
Since we had already successfully implemented many projects with associations and the public sector, we were able to convince the Zweckverband Unterbacher See of our merits and to “land” the project redesign of the website 😀
Relaunching the website: Experience free time!
The website of the Unterbacher See was getting on in years. Formerly realized with TYPO3 and outdated in versioning, a modernization of the platform was necessary.
To modernise the look and structure the contents in a new and clear way at the same time was obvious.
The Objectives
- Change of the technical basis (TYPO3 to WordPress)
- Modernization of the appearance
- Optimisation of the display of the 6 leisure areas (colour guidance system)
- Professionalization of communication and external presentation
- Optimization of the findability of registrations and bookings
- Homogenization of dynamic content via editing process
The Planning Process
Together with itensity GmbH & Co. KG, the IT consultant of the Unterbacher See, we developed a detailed list of requirements as well as the new content structure and user interface.
First of all, we developed the Look&Feel and moodboard for the visual presentation and consulted with the corporate design graphic designer of the Unterbacher See. During the work on Look&Feel it became clear that although Lake Unterbach has a lot of visual material available, only a few motifs were available in a consistent style across all leisure areas.
In an intensive process, together with the Unterbacher See, we selected the motifs for use that best conveyed the claim to experience leisure time – and also corresponded to our emotional bond (we were born in Düsseldorf).
Different groups of editors in the individual leisure areas are responsible for creating and maintaining the content. This means that the sailing school is managed and provided with content by different persons than the camping area. We therefore had to ensure that all editors, regardless of their experience in online editing, could easily create homogeneous content without compromising the design.
Due to a tight timing in times of Corona, we provided training on how to add content during the implementation of the new website. In addition to regular video conferences on the status, we especially supported “Holger the Elementator” in using WordPress, so that he was able to pass on the expertise he had gained internally to the other editors.
The Screendesign
Based on the corporate design, we gave each of the six different leisure areas managed by the Zweckverband its own colour and atmosphere.
The design should reflect the claim to experience leisure in family-friendly diversity and positive perception. The choice of mood images and icons was correspondingly important. The use of discreet animations and CSS transitions expresses playfulness, in keeping with the theme.
The image collage on the start page reflects the variety of activities. The respective areas got their own colour mood and individual icons. Sailing school, boat rental and harbour have mood pictures with blue mood and lots of water. Beach resorts transport the orange-coloured heat of an afternoon in midsummer and camping transports the tranquillity of the green nature at the cool lake.
The Tech
The conceptual focus was the separation of design and editing. The editors should have only a low hurdle to overcome when creating content with the accessible editor in the WordPress core, Gutenberg.
We implemented the design with color coding using the Theme Builder from Elementor [Affiliate Link], with which we created separate templates for the respective page areas.
Thanks to this separation of design and editing, online editors can concentrate on posting content in business operations and the screen design remains consistent across all areas.
We used global widgets to make it easier to update the opening hours and contact information displayed in the sidebars of the sections. This enables the editor-in-chief to maintain this information in a uniform way at opening hours and contact.
We realized the event calendar via Custom-Post-Type with JetEngine.
We programmed a shortcode for the presentation of the measurement data obtained at the lake and provided for the dynamic presentation of the webcam screenshots.
The Future
Despite Corona, the cooperation of our project team with the responsible persons of the Unterbacher See was very pleasant, always goal-oriented and successful. We are all very satisfied with the jointly developed result.
The management and responsible editors of the Unterbacher See have demonstrated the will and ability to create a modern and digital design for the Unterbacher See recreational area, which is valuable for Düsseldorf, Hilden and Solingen.
Communication with guests, booking and occupancy management and, last but not least, the company’s own presentation in digital media is undergoing rapid change. The Zweckverband Unterbacher See is up to the task. We look forward to continuously supporting the Unterbacher See, whose waters we swallowed when we were children learning to swim.
