QUADWORK

Case study · National Park Service

Trails and parks that invite people outside.

Award-winning NPS work, from Shenandoah’s interactive history curricula to the Chesapeake Explorer app, built for students and the public and held to Section 508.

Client
National Park Service: Shenandoah National Park, national historic trails and the Chesapeake Bay region
Our role
As part of ALEX+TOM (Full Stack Developer and UX Designer, 2011–2019)
Years
2011–2019
Scale
Five award-winning NPS sites and apps, from classroom curricula to a 400+ park mobile guide
Services
  • Strategy
  • Design
  • Engineering
  • Accessibility
Concept image: a Blue Ridge overlook at golden hour with a translucent trail-map interface floating over the landscape.
Concept image.
The starting point

History for every age, and a region to explore.

Shenandoah National Park needed to teach students how the park was founded, and about the families relocated to create it, in a way that would hold the attention of every age group. Elsewhere, NPS needed to help the public find and explore hundreds of parks, trails and historic sites around the Chesapeake Bay.

What we changed

Four decisions did most of the work.

  1. Turn history into something you can touch

    Interactive timelines, clickable land-tract maps, a historical match game and poster-design tools let students work with the story instead of reading about it.

  2. Design for the classroom

    The programs were built to complement elementary and middle school curricula, with exercises and video teachers can use as they are.

  3. Let park staff own it

    Easy-to-edit programming means NPS staff update the content themselves, without going back to an agency.

  4. Put the region in your pocket

    Chesapeake Explorer used GPS and Google’s APIs for location-based discovery, saved favorites, suggested tours, and tours people build and share themselves.

How it works

Five Gold Addys, one standard.

National Park Service awards by year
YearProjectAward
2011Park PointsGold Addy
2012Chesapeake Explorer appGold Addy
2013Star-Spangled Banner National Historic TrailGold Addy
2013Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic TrailGold Addy
2018Shenandoah National Park websiteGold Addy
2019Shenandoah National Park websiteMobile WebAward
Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail site with an interactive map of trail sites around the Chesapeake.
Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail
Shenandoah National Park site with a mountain panorama and the headline Finding your place in time.
Shenandoah National Park
Park Points site with the National Park Service arrowhead and a sailboat.
Park Points
Guardrails

Built so everyone can use it.

The Shenandoah programs were built to meet Section 508 and WCAG, so people of all abilities can use them. Accessibility was part of the definition of done, not a late audit.

Results

Recognized, year after year.

5Gold Addys for NPS work, 2011–2018
400+parks and trails in the Chesapeake Explorer app
508Section 508 and WCAG compliant multimedia programs
For your campus

A park site and an admissions site serve the same person.

  • The public, on a phoneA national park and a university both serve someone, often a student, on a phone deciding whether to visit.
  • Compliance as a baselineFederal accessibility habits now apply to public universities under ADA Title II.
  • Teach, don’t just tellInteractive storytelling that worked in classrooms works for prospective students and families too.

Talk to us about your campus

Credits & sources

Who did what, and where the numbers come from.

Role
As part of ALEX+TOM (Full Stack Developer and UX Designer, 2011–2019). Delivered at the agency by members of today’s Quadwork team.
Sources
alextom.com/projects/national-park-service; alextom.com/projects/chesapeake-explorer; alextom.com/about/addy-awards; magness.im/resume
Images
Screenshots: ALEX+TOM, used with approval. Cover is AI-generated concept art.