Alerting campers the moment a matching BC Parks site becomes available
Project Overview
Summer campsites in BC's provincial parks sell out very quickly. After that, the only way in is a cancellation, and those appear at random times. For me and a few friends, that meant early mornings and evenings of checking their website and still missing out.
CampingScout does the remembering. Describe your trip once, and it lets you know when a matching site becomes available, with a direct link to that site on the official reservation website. Booking is always up to you.
My main goals were...
Set up an alert in about a minute, with no account or password in the way
Only alert when a site fits the whole trip (not partial availabilities), so every notification is worth acting on
Link straight to the right site on the official reservation website, and leave the booking entirely to the camper, according to the park's policies
By the numbers
accounts or passwords needed to create an alert
alert channels: email, browser push and an in‑page alarm
from alert to that exact site on the official reservation website
The Challenge
Openings aren't rare. The window is tiny and the path to booking is long.
Manual monitoring: checking back park by park and date by date
Partial matches: one free night is useless if you need three
Lost context: by the time you navigate back to the right park and dates, it's gone
Trust: an unofficial tool near your booking must be clear about what it never does
Defining my design question
How might we turn a fully booked campground into a confirmed reservation by letting campers know when a matching site becomes available, while the booking stays entirely in their hands?
Understanding the booking race
I mapped the journey from "I want this weekend" to "I have a reservation". The hard part was never paying: it was noticing an opening at all, then finding your way back to the right park, dates, preferences and site.
Key findings, from my own bookings and beta feedback
People don't want another way to search. They want to be told
An alert that doesn't fit the whole stay costs trust fast
An alert is only useful if it takes you straight to the right site and dates
Principles I held myself to
Building on someone else's public system comes with responsibility.
Assist, never act
It alerts and links to the official site. It never reserves, books or pays for anyone.
Be honest about what it is
Unofficial, not affiliated with BC Parks, and it says so everywhere.
Stay small on purpose
An invite‑only beta for friends and family: a tool for campers, not resellers.
My proposed solution
Three decisions, each removing friction between an opening and the camper who wants it.
Design decision 1 – Build the alert first, ask for an email last
A sign‑up wall is the most likely place for someone to give up, especially when a friend just sent them the link. So the builder works without logging in, and an email, verified with a code or magic link, is only asked for at the end. There is no password, ever.
The alert builder, with a live summary of exactly what will be watched
The whole builder on a phone, scrolled top to bottom: the email is asked for last
Outcome
Alerts set up with zero accounts or passwords
Matching on the whole stay and equipment keeps alerts actionable
Design decision 2 – Reach people wherever they are, and be loud only when it matters
An alert sitting unread in an inbox is worthless. I layered email, browser push and a full‑screen in‑page alarm, and made each channel's on/off state visible and fixable from the dashboard.
The in‑page alarm: one clear action, and a clear way to stop it
Outcome
Redundant channels, so one missed notification isn't a missed site
Visible, fixable channel settings instead of hidden browser permissions
Design decision 3 – Mobile alerts without a native app
Campers are rarely at a desk when a spot opens, but building and maintaining a native app for a small beta wasn't worth it. Instead, it sends push notifications straight from the browser, and on iPhone, adding CampingScout to the Home Screen turns it into a web app that can receive them, so alerts reach your phone without an app store download. A short "How it works" guide walks people through that one step.
The rest of the mobile experience follows the same rule: desktop‑only features are hidden rather than shown broken, and the search stacks into one thumb‑friendly card.
Landing, alert builder and passwordless log in on mobile
Outcome
Push notifications on mobile with no native app to build, ship or install
No dead ends: every visible option works on that device
What real use revealed
Most beta issues looked technical at first. Seen from the camper's side, each one was a design problem, and solving it that way changed the product.
Reliability is something people perceive
When a browser put the dashboard to sleep, the alarm stayed silent, and to a camper that looks like a broken product. Beyond the fix, I made each alert channel's status visible so people can trust what will reach them.
Silence reads as broken
Days can pass without an opening, and no news felt like no service. A raw technical log became a plain‑language activity feed that shows the product is working.
Design for plans that change
The first version assumed a fixed trip. Real plans shift, so edit and duplicate replaced rebuilding an alert from scratch.
One unreliable channel undermines them all
SMS alerts weren't dependable yet, and a missed text would cast doubt on email and push too. I hid them until they were, keeping the experience smaller but trustworthy.
What I got from this project
A personal project still deserves a product mindset
Treating a tool for myself as a real product, with goals, principles and people relying on it, is what made it useful to anyone else.
Knowing where to stop is a design decision
CampingScout tells you, and you book. Being explicit about what a product will never do builds as much trust as anything it does.