Case Studies

Digital design company magneticNorth (mN) have relaunched visitmanchester.com and outlined their role in shaping the city’s future digital vision. The site, which they were appointed digital partner on in July 2009 by Marketing Manchester, is the first public manifestation of a new approach they have worked with the city to develop to market itself digitally.

At the heart of this progressive strategy is the creation of a ‘Manchester API’, an interface for the city that in effect listens to the web and collects together any relevant information from social media feeds and data about what to do and discover in the city. Concepted and developed by magneticNorth and known as ‘FABRIC’, it quite literally weaves its way across the web and through the city itself, providing an ever growing source of information about Manchester, built from the now and with the potential to inform all of Manchester’s future digital presence.

The relaunch of visitmanchester.com is the first time the public will have the opportunity to see FABRIC in action.

Central to the design idea behind the site is the belief that a city is not simply a collection of buildings or a physical location in space. The new site communicates the continuing ebb and flow of the city, in a way that is unique to Manchester, built on its revolutionary past and yet is utterly modern in its approach, breaking the traditional rules of digital and tourism ‘marketing’ as only Manchester can.

In the design of the new site, there was much consideration to the presentation of information and it was felt the normal web language of ‘pages’ instantly broke this critical feeling of constant flow. And so, magneticNorth decided to ditch this convention and instead replace it with a single never-ending view – an ever-growing stream of content that becomes a visual representation of your journey through the site. At launch the FABRIC feed pulls in real-time Manchester buzz from Twitter, You Tube and Flickr, which is displayed both randomly and contextually depending on what area of the site you are exploring. The number of sources included within the FABRIC feed will continually expand and swell as more of the city’s new digital mindset comes to life.

The team also considered what people really want to know about cities they are visiting – what free things there are to do? Where is Manchester’s most respected food bloggers favourite restaurant? Where can I watch a secret gig? The site uses a ‘Top Five’ recommended list of things to do across a large number of categories’ from best luxury hotels to best vintage shops to help people access the best of the city. It also employed expert content writers from the city’s blog and Twitter community.

The team at magneticNorth worked closely with the Marketing Manchester team and the city’s creative director Peter Saville to create a site that feels radically different to any other tourism site out there. This close partnership will continue as FABRIC continues to shape and inform Manchester’s digital future, which will encourage people to visit the city.

With the new site live, its next form will be a series of Microsoft Surface tables in the upcoming new tourist information centre, which opens in mid-June. Manchester will be the first tourist information centre in Europe to use this technology. Mobile platforms are also part of the strategy over the next 12 months.

magneticNorth (or mN to our friends) is a design company working out of the UK. We create commissioned client work for some of the world’s most interesting companies and brands including the BBC, Arup & Reuters.

Find out more about the work of magneticNorth at mNatwork.com