Map the trekking site before you draw it

A map first

For Mega Adventures, we planned the website as a sitemap before anything was drawn. The map showed every part of the site and where each one led:

• Treks, mountaineering and tours, each leading to a trip page and its booking
• Special offers and a trip finder
• Trips beyond Nepal, in India, Tibet and Bhutan
• Filming in Nepal, and a blog

Wireframes followed for each template.

What the map decides

A sitemap answers questions that are expensive to answer later. Which trips get their own section? Where does a traveller who wants Bhutan go? Does filming belong on a trekking site at all? Each answer on the map is a page that does not have to be moved once it is built.

Then the home page

With the map agreed, the home page could follow it. It opens on one trip, full screen, then lets a traveller choose by kind: trekking, mountaineering or tours. After that come the company’s special trips, essential travel information, stories from the trail, and the team and its community work. On a phone it is the same page, in one column.

An agreement before design

The map makes gaps and overlaps visible before design begins. An owner can use it to agree which trips, services and questions deserve a place, and which can wait. That agreement gives the designer a clearer job.