YouMightLikeOregon.com
There are so many things to do in Oregon… if you were to search for everything to see and do in the state on TravelOregon.com you’d get over 7,000 options. So how can the average visitor choose from this many things? Or, what if they didn’t have to, but were instead offered a curated, random assortment of interesting, off-the-beaten-path stuff to do in the state? That was the idea behind the “You Might Like Oregon” site.
With Travel Oregon launching a new brand campaign – We Like It Here. You Might Too. – they needed a way to communicate the concept online. This idea, combined with the fact that there are so many things to see and do in Oregon, resulted in the interactive strategy of providing serendipity and randomness to what you might find in the state. You might like this secret waterfall. And if you don’t, that’s cool. We have plenty of other things you might like instead, so check them out.
Not wanting to create a fun little site without a call to action, each thing you “might like” links to more information on TravelOregon.com… learn more about Lake Billy Chinook, for example.
The Content Management System, built on WordPress, is flexible enough to handle a number of different photo sizes, allowing the editorial team to customize and select the best aspect ratio for the photograph combined with the new brand headline style, which extends beyond the left and right edges of each photo. There’s also a color picker for the headlines with the full brand color palette so the editorial team can choose the best photo/headline combination.
At launch, the site had about 40-50 different random results, but part of the strategy based on the idea of “you might like” certain special places in Oregon was to let visitors to the site contribute their own places that the editorial team at Travel Oregon might like, and publish them to the site.
If a user-submitted location is approved, they’re sent an email letting them know where they can find their submission on the site. Each page has a unique URL so visitors can share specific resources on social media, or if people just type in the root URL, they’re served up a random selection.
In the case of YouMightLikeOregon.com, the objective isn’t to tell people about EVERYTHING there is to do in the state. Instead, the randomness of finding someplace interesting communicates the idea of “you might like” through interaction, acting as a suggestive adventure generator for trips you can take across the state. And hey, if you don’t like restaurants that feature tons of great options, maybe vibrant blue swimming holes are more your thing. You might like Oregon… one click at a time.
This project launched while I was Creative Director at Substance. I was responsible for interactive strategy, content strategy, information architecture, user experience, creative direction, and design.