In The Sknow | Website Concept | Case Study
During this Case Study, we set out to design a one-stop shop for snowboarders, skiers, and any other resort goers out there. In The Sknow quickly became a passion project for us, and without a doubt has the potential to become a very valuable resource.
Team: Sarah Coleman, Alec Sheele, Stephanie Beck, Christian Keyes-Garcia
Our Roles as a Team: UX Researchers, UI Designers, Developers.
Tools Used: Figma, InVision, Miro, Trello, Visual Studio Code, Google Drive, Bootstrap.
The Name
We came up with “In The Sknow” as a play off of the phrase “in the know” and the actual act of being in the snow at resorts.
Why?
Although only 50% of our four person team was made up of snowboarders, our two counterparts were 100% behind the same cause. As User Experience Researchers they saw an issue among users that they were capable of remedying, which put everyone into gear to get this project on its way.
Research
After conducting interviews and surveys, we compiled a list of common pain-points that we noticed in multiple interviews.
Problem Statement
“Individuals new to Colorado have had issues with planning extensive trips due to the lack of personal knowledge and overwhelming options that Colorado has to offer.”
The Solution
We believe that a well constructed filter system would become an extremely useful tool to search and find the perfect resort whether the user is visiting from out of town, or just looking for a new local adventure.
User-Persona
Our user research culminated in a created user persona that was easy-going, focused, and only a bit spontaneous. They crave adventure and are driven by incentives and adrenaline. Gary is the perfect user for a tool designed to discover new resorts. The next question is, what does a user like Gary look for in his next adventure?
Ideation Phase
Looking back at our user interview data, we categorized the information, resources, and amenities that users look for in planning a trip to a resort. The key takeaways were that users emphasized the need for local eatery information, and maybe even a forum to refer back to past users experiences.
Feature Prioritization
We then moved onto the 2x2 matrix to really pinpoint features that we needed to focus on. Something that mattered the most to us was providing a forum for users to look back at previous experiences other users had to help them make a decision on which resort to choose.
Task Flow
User Insight
- Loves winter sports
- Desires a way to explore his options before planning a trip
- Likes to change things up, wants to try different resorts as often as he can
Storyboard
Gary is new to Colorado and loves to snowboard, but when his niece and nephew come to visit he realizes that he doesn’t know any resorts that would suit a day out with the kids. He turns to the internet to find more about local resorts and comes across In The Sknow. Using the filter process, Gary was able to find a resort that checks all of his boxes and his visit with his niece and nephew was a success.
Competitor Analysis
The best way to choose where to go with our site was to see how other resources are functioning and taking the best and worst aspects into mind when constructing our site.
User Testing Plan
When running users tests we focused on two of our major flows. The “find my mountain” filter system was extremely important because the main aspect of In The Sknow is this flow. The user selects everything important to them, and the site calculates which resort would suit them best.
The other flow we focused on was singing up for an account. This function allows the users to interact with the forum, and save their preferences for their next visit to the site.
Design
At the time of medium/high-fidelity, we then moved toward more of a middle ground, staying with the blues but bringing them to a darker tone to really make the Call to Action buttons stand out.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Our low fidelity wireframe construction was where we made the most important decisions.
Where to put the Login/Sign Up was a vital A/B test for our group.
Iterations and High-Fidelity
When moving into high-fidelity, we conducted a few more user tests to really round everything out, and make sure it would be the optimal experience for our users.
Our main iteration was taking the icons on the filter system and filling them in so it was easier on the eye, and more attention grabbing than they were when they were just outlines.
High-Fidelity Prototype
Once we were satisfied with our high-fidelity mock up, we moved into prototyping and ran some more user tests to gain as much feedback on the design as we could before wrapping up the design process.
To our advantage, our test results proved that we had successfully created exactly what we were out to achieve, and had only positive feedback.
Coding
As designers, we know a thing or two about coding. We decided for the sake of the vision we would code three pages of the site, that you can find here.
Next Step
- Inform new residents about In The Sknow on resources such as Nextdoor and local Facebook Groups
- Advertise kids activities and events at local schools/daycare facilities
- Reach out to resorts for sponsorship
- Follow up emails with surveys and promotions to not only strengthen our following and encourage spreading the word, but to continually improve the site itself
- Create a VIP membership based on past bookings to ensure future business
