CN TOWER
Accessibility / B2C / Brand implementation / Competitive audits / Content creation / Graphic design / SEO & Digital Strategy / User-Interface Design / Website design
The CN Tower is, of course, one of Canada’s premier landmarks, a testament to Canadian engineering and innovation, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.
That’s why we were excited to be invited to be part of the team to create a new website for this beloved icon.
Working closely with the CN Tower’s marketing team and the development team at Digital Echidna/Northern Commerce, we took on two challenges: first, redesigning the site to make it easier to navigate and increase engagement; and second, updating the content to better align with an evolved market position.
Redesigning the site started with a new architecture, in which we organized and streamlined the number of pages and sub-pages needed to tell the CN Tower story—this included a vast amount of information, as the Tower means many things to many people: it is a beloved Canadian icon, a wildly popular tourist destination, a unique meeting and event space, the home of a fine-dining restaurant, and a venue for thrill-seekers. Information needed to be geared toward audiences such as international visitors, local fans, student groups, foodies, media members and more.
Mindful of these audiences, we built pages that showcased the CN Tower brand through a diverse range of content in a single design system, which would prove to be the key to delivering a user experience that was both cohesive and flexible enough to let the sub-brands stand apart.
In addition to making the design more contemporary by giving more prominence to original photography, we introduced more video content and a custom layout for “Explore the Tower”—a special section that brings to life fascinating facts about the record-breaking building.
At the same time, we worked with the Tower’s marketing team to update the content to reflect CN Tower’s evolved positioning as Canada’s celebration destination: a place where out-of-towners and locals alike can celebrate special occasions, anniversaries and other big moments in life by taking part in the best the city has to offer, from the thrill of hanging out—literally—116 storeys high at EdgeWalk to savouring Canadian cuisine at CN Tower’s restaurant, 360.
Throughout it all, we ensured that every aspect of the site’s development met the high standards of AODA accessibility requirements, so everyone could enjoy the Tower’s new site.
With the city and country ready to roar back to life after more than a year of lockdowns, the CN Tower was ready to go too, with a new website that captured everything that truly makes the destination worthy of a celebration.
