Behind The Compass’ New Look

By now, travel advisors who regularly use VAX VacationAccess (VAX) have probably noticed The Compass is sporting a new and improved look. After months of hard work, and listening to valuable feedback from advisors, the VAX team transformed the popular resource by way of improved functionality, expanded category listings and a fresh layout. The result is a version of the site that’s easier to navigate while featuring the same engaging content travel pros know and love.

VAX has always believed The Compass to be a travel advisor’s true north, and, with these changes, this is truer than ever. To give readers more insight into the project, we chatted with Sarah Kneisler, director of marketing and operations for VAX, and Ashley Perego, manager of digital marketing for VAX, to catch up on all the exciting details.

The Inspiration

“The inspiration behind The Compass redesign was to make VAX’s editorial sector stand on its own,” said Perego. “The Compass is such a valuable tool and resource for travel advisors, and we really wanted to represent that with the updated features and functionality.”

Kneisler added that VAX’s audience and their needs were at the heart of the decision. “We were inspired by our advisors; we saw our readership growing over the years and listened to what they wanted from the site,” she said.

Improved Functionality

So, what can advisors expect from the upgraded site? Let’s take it from the top, literally. On the top third of The Compass homepage, visitors will find a selection of dropdown menus labeled “Advisor Development,” “Travel Inspiration,” “Around the Industry” and “From Our Brands.” These dropdown menus were an important addition for improving site navigability, and, upon hovering over them, readers will find a variety of corresponding subcategories to choose from, some familiar, like “Destinations” and “Making Waves,” and some new, like “Hear From Your Peers” and “Brand Features.”

Regarding these changes, Perego said the following: “Advisors can expect a cleaner, easier-to-navigate look and feel. We have also expanded our category listings to be more precise so they can get to the content they want, faster.”

Scrolling further down, visitors will find nifty features like a trending articles section showing which content is popular among readers, rotating banners promoting recently published articles and a completely overhauled search functionality that’s more accurate and easier to use.

“The search feature is what excites me the most,” said Kneisler. “I’m always using the search option to find article topics or articles that we’ve published in the past. The way the new results display is so much easier to digest and find what I’m looking for, I’m confident the advisor community will see an improvement here.”

Regarding the search tool, Perego added, “The added filters, along with the updated result listings, make The Compass search a much more powerful tool.” 

Finally, moving to the bottom third of the homepage, readers will find the freshest content the site has to offer with a selection of recently published articles. As they scroll, visitors will notice each article is listed beneath a category tag which they can click to navigate to a corresponding landing page with relevant content.

Perego said she’s excited about the addition of these tags, stating, “The tags added to each article will not only allow advisors to easily identify which content items they want to view, but will also allow them to filter based on these categories with just one click.”

What VAX Wants Advisors To Know

At the end of the day, The Compass redesign was done with advisors in mind. “I want advisors to know that everything we do is to help them succeed and we are very conscious to incorporate their feedback in everything we do,” said Kneisler.

Perego agreed, adding, “I think the VAX team would want advisors to know that we really considered every detail of this project with them in mind. Our goal, as always, is to help travel advisors utilize the tools and content on VAX to be successful.”

The team encourages advisors to continue reaching out: “We’re still listening — whether it’s feedback specific to The Compass or the rest of the site, advisor feedback drives our enhancements,” said Kneisler. “We have more up our sleeve we hope to announce soon.”