Visit Norway Website
ROle
Senior Interactive Designer,
Simpleview, a part of Granicus
Objective
Redesign the Visit Norway website to support its dual purpose as both an inspirational travel platform and a structured editorial content hub. The new site needed to be modular, accessible, multilingual, and adaptable for campaigns, articles, and destination content—while staying true to the brand’s clean, immersive aesthetic.
TEAM
Willie Maglothin | Creative Developer
Edward Downard | Lead Web Development
Kathryn Stamps | Lead Web Development
Insights
→ Simplified global navigation to keep content central and reduce cognitive load, especially for international users.
→ Designed a responsive experience that preserved editorial integrity and brand impact across devices.
→ Introduced a modular content framework supporting articles, media, and calls-to-action—driving more than 20M annual visitors.
How do you design a destination website that inspires adventure, supports storytelling, and adapts to hundreds of types of content—all at once?
As Lead Visual & Interactive Designer, I was charged with the full redesign of the Visit Norway website, including my first proposal, where I worked alongside the Creative Director and Project Managers. Our task was to create a modern, flexible destination website that balanced editorial depth with performance and visual consistency. Designed to serve both global travelers and local tourism partners, the platform had to scale across devices, support a wide content taxonomy, and feel uniquely Norwegian in both form and function.
Our strategy was to bring the breathtaking landscape and distinctive visual identity of Norway to the forefront through design. We drew inspiration from Norwegian photography—clean compositions and minimalist framing—to inform a layout that feels both expansive and grounded.
Key UX principles guided the design process: simplicity, clarity, and accessibility.
THE CHALLENGE
This was both the company’s and my first global design project—a multi-time-zone, multi-stakeholder collaboration between our U.S. team and the Visit Norway destination team, working across an 8-hour time difference and navigating cultural and language barriers.
As the lead designer, I was responsible for producing 33 unique comps over a 3-month period while coordinating with multiple international vendors, content teams, and development partners. The scale and complexity of the work—combined with the need for a universally appealing design system—demanded clear communication, creative agility, and deep collaboration.
Crucially, this project also marked a turning point in my career: the Visit Norway team began asking questions about usability and best practices in navigation and wayfinding that stretched beyond traditional graphic design. I didn’t yet have the answers—but I was eager to learn. That curiosity led me to dive headfirst into UX principles and formal design education, laying the foundation for the strategic, user-centered practice I lead today.
AWARDS
• 2016 HSMAI Adrian Awards—Gold
• 2016 Skift List: The 25 Best Tourism Websites in the World
• Official Shortlist in The 6th Annual Lovie Awards in the Web: Travel/Tourism category
Featured in Coursera
The Visit Norway homepage hero and sticky navigation were highlighted in Coursera’s UX course as strong examples of first impression design and persistent wayfinding.
Wireframes to High-Fidelity
We mapped out detailed wireframes for homepage, article landing pages, destination content, and itinerary builders. Every component was tested in moderated interviews to ensure performance and usability.
component based design
We created a scalable system of design modules—from immersive image grids to flexible article templates. This allowed content teams to build pages with consistency and adaptability, no matter the content mix or length.
Open Search Experience—Desktop
The open search experience is designed to guide users with both relevance and clarity. By surfacing related links alongside a large, visually prominent primary suggestion, users are quickly oriented toward the most likely match—reducing friction and decision fatigue. From a UX standpoint, this approach balances discovery and direction, ensuring users feel supported and in control as they explore content intuitively.
Activity Detail Page
This page balances visual impact with practical information, using a bold hero image to draw users in while surfacing essential details—like opening hours, pricing, and ticket perks—above the fold. The tabbed layout (Overview/Details) supports content digestion at a glance, making it easy for global travelers to understand key logistics and plan their visit with confidence.
Footer Design—Desktop
The footer brings key information, navigation links, and sponsor recognition directly to the visitor’s fingertips. Consistent with the site's clean, minimalist aesthetic, the design remains unobtrusive yet functional—providing users with a clear path to additional resources without distracting from the overall experience.
Accommodation Detail Page
Key actions—like booking or saving to a wishlist—are supported by clear visual hierarchy, intuitive links, and compelling imagery. The goal was to reduce cognitive load and enable users to quickly access the information they need, regardless of language or location.
Norway Content Page
Our strategy was to bring the breathtaking landscape and distinctive visual identity of Norway to the forefront through design. Interior content pages feature visually immersive and minimalist text.
Digital Style Guide
Following the Norwegian design style of functional minimalism: our style guide focuses on simplicity and utility.
Why It Mattered
This redesign transformed Visit Norway into a true digital publishing platform—blending editorial storytelling, tourism utility, and scalable design. The system we created empowered content teams to tell richer stories faster, while delivering a seamless user experience across audiences and channels. It set a new benchmark for national tourism sites and continues to support campaign, partner, and editorial needs years later.