bespoke ticket booking app and CMS website
www.sandcastle-waterpark.co.uk
Sandcastle Waterpark is the UK’s largest indoor waterpark located at the south end of Blackpool’s Golden Mile, an extremely popular tourist attraction open all year round offering 18 rides and attractions.
project
Sandcastle had a requirement to re-develop their online presence, ticket sales systems, administration systems and improve digital integration. STCS worked in collaboration with Halogen Creative to provide the full solution from design to development including a fully responsive CMS driven website, bespoke online ticket booking system and staff administration system, all interfaced with the Waterpark’s on-site till systems.
The website was built using the WordPress CMS platform with custom templates developed to match the design provided by Halogen Creative. Particular attention was paid to the ease at which site content could be controlled and updated by non-technical staff. Bespoke e-commerce functionality was developed that could handle complex ticket sales transactions and interface directly with the tills on-site at the waterpark. Due to strict safety regulations regarding adult-to-child ratios, ticket orders needed to adhere to a complex set of rules to ensure orders would not complete unless these regulations were met. In addition to standard entry tickets there are a number of optional extras including tickets for specific slides which are also governed by age restrictions.
Ticket sales are completed through the website and the information is passed through an API to the tills on site to enable staff to control admissions. Administrative functions are also available including production of reports and email marketing.
methodology
An iterative approach was used for the visual design of the site with Halogen working closely with key Sandcastle staff to produce a striking design in a style that was relevant to the waterpark and would appeal directly to their target audience. When the design was finalised it was translated into responsive WordPress page templates and the build of the website itself was carried out.
Development of the bespoke ticket application ran in parallel to the design of the main site with STCS using a workshop lead approach to define requirements and uncover any hidden issues prior to development starting. As well as the visual design of the application, user experience was also key to the success of the project. Particular attention was paid to the customer journey and ensuring the complex ticket booking process was intuitive and user friendly.
As the website and ticket system is critical to Sandcastle’s business, we provide a call-off support service to attend to any issues related to CMS security updates, browser updates and hosting etc. We also provide further enhancements to both the website and ticket system.
results
The website, ticket booking system and admin functionality are in use on a daily basis and at peak periods the website must handle many thousands of visitors each day. In the last 12 months the system has managed over 145,000 ticket sales worth £1.5m.
technology stack
WordPress, PHP, MySQL, Javascript / JQuery, HTML5, CSS3
graphic design
wordpress CMS
bespoke ticket app
system integration
22,000 baskets
145,000 tickets
in 12 months