For almost two centuries, Governors Island in the New York City harbor was military-owned and closed to the public. That changed in 2003, when it came under public ownership. Today it is overseen by the Trust for Governors Island, which seeks to ensure the island is enjoyed by all.
Because Governors Island is only open during the summer months, must be reached via ferry, and is still newly open to the public, its website receives higher traffic than the websites of many other parks and public spaces from users needing travel information and reasons to visit.
To support the Trustβs goal of increasing the number of repeat visitors to the island, we also made their website easier to browse and enlarged images to better attract users to events and activities at Governors Island.
We worked with the Trust to provide a better online experience for users, who include island visitors, vendors, event organizers, and developers interested in real estate opportunities. This meant rebuilding the site with a mobile-first approach after existing analytics confirmed that site traffic overwhelmingly originated from mobile devices.