THE CHALLENGE

Louisiana Tourism is a state government entity that promotes travel and tourism to the state through online campaigns, ads, and social promotions. My task was to create an innovative user experience to promote National Gumbo Day, drive traffic to the site, and increase tourism to the state of Louisiana in collaboration with the tourism department’s in house development team.

THE PROCESS

After ideating different approaches, I decided on a “Build Your Own Gumbo” experience. I started by researching how gumbos are traditionally made. To make a gumbo, you start with a roux, then add your veggies, your seasonings, and lastly the proteins. After I had pinpointed each step, I decided which ingredients to include. Gumbos are so diverse throughout different regions that I quickly realized we would have many ingredient options per step. I also needed to include educational background info with each ingredient to help inform users about the state of Louisiana and its culture.

THE RESULT

Custom illustrations bring each ingredient to life as users are guided through a step-by-step module and prompted to drag and drop ingredients into their pot. Users can find out more about each ingredient, where it comes from, why it’s used, etc. by clicking on it.

After completing their gumbo, users are given a personalized illustration of their gumbo, and directed to information about their gumbo’s cultural origins, ingredient specs, and more. They also have the option to share their virtual gumbo via social channels.

Overall, the gumbo builder encouraged traffic to the site and provided an educational, promotional, and interactive experience. The site experienced 16,978 views over two weeks with the gumbo guilder having an engagement rate of 64.35%.