Gulf TREE
Gulf Tree was created to provide climate scientists a platform to find climate tools based on their unique needs and applications. The website’s partners Gulf of Mexico Alliance Resilience Team (GOMA), Gulf of Mexico Climate Community of Practice (CoP), and Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative (SSC) are all organizations focused on building partnerships that tackle enhancing the ecological and economic health of the Gulf region, and providing outreach and education to their constituents on how to best adapt in the face of climate-related issues.
Services provided: Strategy + Ideation, UX + UI, Design + Branding, Website
Gulf Tree was created to provide climate scientists a platform to find climate tools based on their unique needs and applications. The website’s partners Gulf of Mexico Alliance Resilience Team (GOMA), Gulf of Mexico Climate Community of Practice (CoP), and Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative (SSC) are all organizations focused on building partnerships that tackle enhancing the ecological and economic health of the Gulf region, and providing outreach and education to their constituents on how to best adapt in the face of climate-related issues.
Services provided: Strategy + Ideation, UX + UI, Design + Branding, Website
CHALLENGE
A unique challenge of this project was the reliance on search driven mechanisms to be the engine of the website. Operating almost more as an application, the trick to a successful Gulf Tree site would be to create something intuitive and easy to use, while also creating something beautiful to look at. As a resource that people needed to engage with in order to discover tools that fulfill their professional needs, we strived to seamlessly guide users to the climate mapping tool that’s right for them.
SOLUTION
In order for the site to be functional and captivating for stakeholders such as natural resource managers and community planners, we paid special attention content strategy and user experience. We created two pathways for individuals to find their climate tools - a guided search and filtered search. Within these, we refined the language used in framing the guided search questions and mapped out a variety of detailed filtered search terms. Additionally, the site underwent heavy user testing and QA to ensure that the target audience found it to be fun, accurate, engaging and a reliable source for discovering the professional resources they needed.
