Presidio of San Francisco Launches New Website

San Francisco, CA (September 26, 2023) – This month, the Presidio – one of America’s most visited national park sites – became even more discoverable and user-friendly with the launch of its new website, presidio.gov. The platform is easy for visitors to navigate from any device and provides a “how to” guide for discovering the many locations, offerings, and programs in the nearly 1,500-acre park. The new website also showcases opportunities to rent an apartment, a historic home, or an office suite and makes it easy to find historic venues and lawns for weddings, parties, and corporate events.

“The Presidio is a HUGE park with restaurants and museums, historic sites, and amazing nature experiences,” the Presidio Trust’s Associate Director of Communications Jody Sanford shared. “It can be hard to know where to start, so we created a website that makes it easy to tailor a visit that’s right for you and your family.”

Presidio.gov provides insights and practical guidance for visitors, including expert-curated 2- to 3-hour itineraries for history buffs, nature lovers, and families visiting with kids. It also includes self-guided adventures that can be downloaded in advance, like the Presidio Tunnel Tops Discovery Guide and the Goldsworthy in the Presidio walking tour that visits the Andy Goldsworthy’s site-specific art installations in the park. New maps and transit information help with wayfinding. The website also helps visitors connect with the incredible history and natural resources found in the park, as well as the Presidio Trust’s role as thought leader in urban ecological practices, by sharing content on those topics from park experts.

Hosting almost 10M visits per year with free entrance, the Presidio is home to a dozen restaurants and the Presidio Pop Up food truck program, as well museums, an award-winning public golf course, two boutique historic hotels, and even an indoor rock-climbing gym. With links to these amenities and suggestions for integrating them into a visit, the website helps visitors plan truly surprising park experiences. A new multi-lingual function automatically translates into Chinese and Spanish and other languages including Tagalog and Korean will be coming soon.

“The Presidio has been a bright spot for visitors to San Francisco, especially during the pandemic,” San Francisco Travel Association President and CEO Joe D’Alessandro said. “As more tourists return to the city, and new businesses open in the park, this beautiful new website will simplify trip planning and invite folks to enjoy this iconic site.”

Designed in partnership with Material+, a global strategy and customer experience transformation consultancy, presidio.gov was informed by the best practices in web design. Initially, the principles of ethnography were used to understand the visitor experience – and how a digital platform could better help visitors understand and connect with park offerings. The team conducted stakeholder interviews, extensive content, structure, and analytics assessments, and mapped typical customer profiles based on search behavior. The site was newly migrated to a Word Press platform and optimized for current analytics tracking tools. Presidio.gov can pull in helpful 3rd party content and makes businesses at the Presidio more discoverable. The result is a design-forward and user-centric website.

About the Presidio and the Presidio Trust

The Presidio is one of America’s most visited national park sites, located within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Spanning 1,500 acres next to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio is among the most biologically diverse parks in America. Historically a home to native peoples and a military post under three flags, its facilities have been reinvented as museums, restaurants, hotels, homes, and offices. The Presidio Trust is the federal agency that stewards the Presidio, in partnership with the National Park Service and with support from the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. The Trust sustains the Presidio by leasing homes and workplaces and offering visitor amenities. Learn more at presidio.gov.