Star RV

Jucy Group, a leading camper van and rental car company in Australia and New Zealand, embarked on a mission to redefine the RV website landscape following their acquisition of Star RV. Wanting to do things a bit differently to every other rental website, they turned to Voyage to craft an immersive and captivating online experience.

The Star RV website centers around the concept of "Star Stories" where the vibrant adventures and personal narratives of Star RV users took center stage. This inspired the creation of a multimedia-rich digital experience that relied heavily on engaging videos and captivating imagery to narrate these stories, serving as the storytelling canvas. We partnered with Thread, a creative studio versed in storytelling for brands to help bring the adventures to life. Together we meticulously crafted the visual identity and user experience that would distinctly position the Star RV website in a league of its own.

We embarked on an iterative prototyping journey, translating design thinking into interactive Figma prototypes. The essence of Star Stories stood as a guiding light, infusing our design decisions with strategic intent. Through intentional placements of videos and images, our aim was to not only captivate users' attention but also immerse them in the genuine RV experience, ensuring that brand storytelling resonated with unwavering authenticity.

Our tech stack was instrumental in turning design visions into a seamless reality. By utilising the capabilities of React, TypeScript, and Next.js, we sculpted a dynamic and high-performing frontend, harnessing the efficiency of statically generated pages. Our project thrived on a cutting-edge design system anchored by Tailwind CSS, enabling rapid iteration, scalability, and unwavering consistency.

When approaching the project build we wanted to make sure we were meeting accessibility standards and so integrated Radix UI, a low-level UI component library with accessibility built in from day one. In conjunction with Class Variance Authority (CVA) to manage styling variants, this helped form the bedrock of our design system. Development was further enhanced through the utilisation of Storybook for isolated UI component construction, ensuring a comprehensive and efficient approach to building our modular elements.

To empower the content management process, we integrated Strapi as the backend CMS, streamlining the process for effortless content updates. A pivotal aspect of the project was the creation of an unparalleled video experience. Instead of relying on conventional video platforms like YouTube or Vimeo, we implemented Mux. This technology allowed us to exercise greater control over video playback and presentation, ensuring a personalised, immersive encounter for users.

Throughout the development phase, we adhered to an iterative approach. We established a staging and preview environments for each development branch, seamlessly integrating Git with Vercel. The utilisation of preview environments significantly accelerated testing and the merging of new features while allowing us to monitor performance, accessibility, and adherence to best practices through automated Lighthouse reports on all pull requests. Additionally, we employed Github Actions to enforce linting, type checking, code formatting, and testing, ensuring a high level of consistency and efficiency throughout the development cycle. We also conducted rigorous quality assurance testing to identify and rectify any bugs or inconsistencies, guaranteeing a seamless website functionality and an exceptional user experience.

After the website's public launch, we received an overwhelmingly positive response from users. During user testing, there was a clear demonstration of genuine enthusiasm for the captivating design, immersive videos, and engaging storytelling. Notably, the Star Stories feature played a pivotal role in our success, effectively inspiring users to embark on RV adventures.