Design study · Forest preserve district · Illinois
The smallest screen is the main screen
A preserve district concept designed from the district's own analytics outward — most people arrive on a phone, often already outdoors, looking for one specific place to go today.
Redesign concept built for the June 2026 Website Development & Implementation RFP. Not the live District website.
- Forest preserve website
- Preserve finder
- Mobile-first
- Events integration
- Accessibility
Winnebago County Forest Preserves — open the working site
Case study overview
The problem
Forty-five preserves across 11,600 acres is a discovery problem disguised as a content problem. Publishing a page per preserve does not help someone decide where to go — they need to filter by what they actually want, which is trail mileage, camping, paddling, or a dog. And they are deciding on a phone, frequently in a car, sometimes with no signal, which is the one context most district sites are designed last for.
The approach
Phone-first is taken literally rather than as a responsive checkbox: the small screen is the primary composition, and the desktop is the adaptation. The finder searches all 45 official preserve records by location, acreage, trail mileage, camping, paddling, and golf amenities, so the filter matches the decision. Camping and reservations, the events calendar, and the district's three public golf courses each get a real path, and the calendar is treated as an honest integration surface pointing at the district's live system rather than a copy that drifts out of date. Preserve photography carries the pages instead of generic web chrome.
The result
Seven routes covering preserves and trails, activities, events, golf, contact, and accessibility — with the golf operation split out into its own microsite where its audience actually behaves differently.
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