NJ Marine Fisheries — Discovery Platform for Boats, Seafood, and Experiences

Discovery-oriented platform architecture and UX design for structured navigation of marine resources across the State of NJ.

Project snapshot

  • Client: New Jersey Marine Fisheries Administration
  • Year: 2022

Services

The Background

The New Jersey Marine Fisheries Administration promotes sustainable marine tourism, public education, and access to fishing and seafood resources. New Jersey's marine industry includes commercial fishing, recreational boating, seafood restaurants, and marine education. The Administration sought to create a modern, centralized digital platform showcasing these diverse offerings and helping residents and visitors discover what the state's marine economy has to offer.

The Problem

Marine information and experiences were scattered across multiple sources, agencies, and websites—making discovery difficult and cumbersome. Tourists looking for charter boats, residents seeking local seafood, and educators seeking marine resources had no unified, searchable platform. The state needed a modern discovery experience that could surface charter boats, seafood vendors, restaurants, educational content, and marine adventures in an intuitive way across all devices.

Our Solutions

We designed a discovery-style platform with clear taxonomy, search, and browsing flows optimized for tourist and resident discovery:

Information Architecture & Taxonomy:

  • Developed clear taxonomy organizing diverse marine resources (boats, restaurants, educational, recreational)
  • Created structured data layer enabling search and filtering
  • Built browsing pathways for different user types (tourists, educators, residents)

Discovery Experience Design:

  • Designed intuitive search interface for finding specific resources
  • Built browsing experience enabling exploration by category, location, season
  • Created detail pages for each boat, restaurant, or experience with reviews and booking links
  • Optimized for mobile discovery—majority of users searching on smartphones

Platform Development:

  • Built scalable database structure for managing diverse marine resources
  • Integrated with state databases for real-time availability
  • Implemented location-based search and mapping

The Results

The platform became an essential resource connecting residents and visitors with New Jersey's marine offerings:

  • Comprehensive resource discovery platform for boats, seafood, and marine experiences
  • Thousands of visitors using platform to plan marine activities and experiences
  • 1,000+ local partners (charter boats, seafood vendors, educators) participating
  • Increased awareness of New Jersey's marine industry and tourism offerings
  • Direct bookings and business generated for marine service providers

Results

  • 1,000+ participating Marine partners
  • Centralized resource hub
  • Discovery platform
  • Thousands monthly User engagement
  • Direct bookings generated
  • Economic impact