Getting overseas groups to book a sport they’ve never seen

Overview

Experience Gaelic Games gives visitors a hands-on introduction to hurling, Gaelic football and handball at community clubs in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Belfast. The project was a new website of around 22 pages, delivered as part of a Fáilte Ireland supported programme.

The Problem

Almost everyone arriving on the site has never seen these sports, and 96% of visitors come from overseas. So the site has to explain something unfamiliar, feel properly Irish and still get people to book quickly, on a phone. On top of that, around 80% of the business comes from groups (schools, corporate teams, stag and hen parties, families, tour operators), and each of them needs different information.

What I Did, And Why

I organised the site around who is booking, not around what is being booked, with a 'Who it's for' section for each audience. A teacher planning a school trip and a stag party share nothing except the sport. Groups that can book instantly see a booking calendar, and groups that need a conversation get an enquiry form. Why: the right next step is different for each group, and the wrong one is where bookings quietly die.

The site is live in seven languages, because most of its visitors aren't English speakers. And it was designed to WCAG 2.2 AA from the start. Why: a site for international visitors has to work for as many of them as possible, whatever their language or ability.

What Came Out Of It

The site launched in 2025 and is live at experiencegaelicgames.com. On the live homepage, 50 automated accessibility checks pass, none of the findings is critical or serious, every image has alt text and there is a skip link.