Redesign for a Local Business

Secret Caverns

 
 
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Project Overview

 
 

Challenge

Revise an outdated local attraction

Secret Caverns is a local tourist attraction in rural upstate New York. Old limestone formations have created an awe-inspiring cavern that was first discovered by some intrepid bovine in the late 1920s. A highlight of the cavern is a 100ft waterfall visitors can view at the end of the tour. 

They have an outdated online presence with little to no advertising elsewhere. They are looking for a responsive design to keep up with the current times and to stay competitive with other similar attractions in the area.

Objectives

Create a Responsive Design

  • Create a responsive site that allows customers to view the attraction’s offerings from other than just a desktop

  • Redefine outdated branding

 

Scope

Responsive Website, Branding

Role

Sole UX Designer (Research, Visual Design, Interaction Design, User Testing)

Tools

Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Procreate, Whimsical

Duration

2 weeks (80 Hours)

 
 
 
 
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Design Process

 

Empathize

Research Goals

Methodologies

Empathy Map

User Persona

Define

POV Statements + HMW Questions

Brainstorming

Business + User Goals

Ideate [Part I]

Product Roadmap

Site Map

UI Requirements

Task + User Flows

Sketches

Responsive Wireframes

Prototype

Mid Fidelity Prototype

Test

Usability Testing

Affinity Map

Priority Matrix

Ideate [Part II]

Branding

Style Guide

High Fidelity Wireframes

 
 
 

Empathize

Reacquainting with locals and an old haunt

Beginning this research had a different tone to it than the previous - it was a little more personal. At the time I was residing in my old hometown in upstate New York and was able to reconnect with a local business that would grant me the opportunity for creating a real-world design. And I grew up just down the road from it!

I wasn’t certain where the business stood since COVID struck, but was glad to see it still standing. I made the effort to acquaint myself with the business and began generating my research plan to help rebuild the voice of this somewhat nostalgic cavern attraction.


Research Goals

  • Gather information about the attraction and tourism similar to it 

  • Learn what drives the business in a rural location

  • Identify strengths and weaknesses of local competitors

  • Determine the target audience 

  • Understand how customers are reached that are not from the local area

Methodologies

  • Secondary Research (Market Research & Competitive Analysis)

  • Primary Research (Personal 1:1 Interviews)

 

Researching a Sleepy Town

To get a better understanding of the attraction, researching demographics, economic infrastructure, and tourism in the area became the initial focus.

Demographics

Schoharie County, which within it nests the hamlet of Howes Cave where Secret Caverns is located, provides a majority of the attractions customers. As of 2019, the U.S. Census and City Data shows:

Racial makeup:

  • 95.76% white

Population:

  • Median resident age is 45

  • 49.7% are male, 50.3% are female 

 

Economy

As there is little traffic coming from outside the upstate area, the county’s economic infrastructure was closely examined to determine how local businesses were performing.

 
 


Tourism & Impact of COVID

Early data shows some concerning trends for the county’s economy and tourism since the pandemic.

 
 
 

Scoping out the Local Competition

Exploring competitor strengths and weaknesses provided insights into where locals like to spend their time in environments similar to the cavern. This allowed me to see what competitors are excelling in or lacking, and how Secret Caverns can improve its own business.

 

Chatting with the Employees & the Tourists

After conducting about 10 minute 1:1 interviews with 2 employees of the cavern and 4 customers, I was able to obtain valuable insights into the way customers gain knowledge of the attraction and what brings them to the area, as well as how the employees feel about their business.

Number of Interviews: 6

Participants: 2 SME (Subject Matter Experts), 4 Customers

Age: 25-60

Summary

  • Employees take pride in their business and see little to change what they already have

  • Employees enjoy their unique aesthetic

  • Customers are interested in seeking oddity attractions

  • Customers like to be in natural settings

  • Customers struggled with the accessibility of the cavern

  • Customers are mostly locals but have never visited

  • Customers often revisit cavern competitor Howe Caverns

 

Observations from my Visit

After speaking with all participants, I compiled an empathy map to show all observations made from each person that was interviewed. Below are the most important observations made from the 1:1 interviews. 3 main patterns emerged that specified insights and needs that had to be met for all participants when looking to visit the attraction.

 
 
 

Say Hello to Marie!

Based on all prior research conducted, a persona could then be reached to target who the audience for Secret Caverns is, and specifications the site would need to cater to based on their goals and needs. This helps to focus on addressing the major needs of the most important user group. It is both fictional and realistic.

Welcome, Marie! A 45-year-old Health Counselor from the upstate New York area. She has lived in the upstate area for many years but rarely gets the opportunity to indulge in its more unique local offerings. She enjoys being able to discover new places in her area that hold a lot of history and share what to expect on a given visit. Marie loves seeking out attractions that have a charismatic voice and vision.

 
 
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Define

How might we help Marie?

Now that all information has been collected in the research empathy phase, translating insights and posing HMW (How Might We…) questions bring about more actionable statements for further ideation.

 

Brainstorming

Brainstorming helps to hypothesize solutions for the persona. I sat down for about a half-hour and mapped out ideas. This helped to quickly generate new ways to improve the persona’s experience with the attraction. Mapping of potential solutions can be viewed here.

 

Analyzing Business & User Goals

Data can now be more specifically defined. Common goals can be linked together to visualize which goals were most important and how they all overlapped one another. User goals from the persona and empathy map, business goals from the project brief, and technical considerations were all united into this balanced Venn Diagram.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Ideate

Prioritizing Key Features

To begin the Ideate process, a features roadmap or a product roadmap, was constructed which ranked most important to least important features needed for the site - Must-Haves [P1], Nice to Have [P2], Surprising and Delightful [P3], and Can Come Later [P4]. This helped to gain a clearer sense of what the priorities of the project were. A comprehensive list can be seen here.

 
 
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Creating an Intuitive Layout

A site map helped me to sort the information architecture and define the navigational hierarchy of all pages and features the site would offer. It creates a visual for how Marie would interact with the site.

 
 
 
 
 

Drafting the Details

Once the site map came together, a user interface document could be drafted. It details the high-level requirements needed for each of the pages to be built. Based on features identified in the Products Roadmap and Site Map, specific flows could be crafted that the persona would navigate to learn about the attraction’s offerings. The full document can be read here.

 

Let’s Go to the Cave

To make better sense of what was to be designed, task flows were created to show how Marie would navigate from page to page. Below is the first task flow Marie would most likely encounter - seeking information on cavern tours. 2 other task flows were created and can be viewed here.

 
 

The Full Journey

Building on the task flow, the user flow shows how all tasks connect and what decisions the persona would make through those specified scenarios. These flows would then be implemented and tested in the prototype.

 
 

Sketching the Cavern

Using my handy Procreate app, I sketched out some low fidelity wireframes to help visualize even further what the foundation of the site will take on. These are the sketches for each page that have the potential for the desktop layout.

 

Creating a Responsive Design

After drafting up low-fidelity sketches, digital wireframes were constructed from the compositions that best suited the needs of the persona. Mid-fidelity wireframes were created in greyscale to first determine the information hierarchy, position, and size of the content before color and imagery were applied. The wireframes were then molded into 3 different interfaces for desktop, tablet & mobile, completing the full responsive set.

 
 
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Prototype

The First Connections

Based on the low fidelity wireframes, I was then able to create a mid-fidelity prototype that connected to show how each of the task flows identified earlier would lead the persona through their online journey. It was important to test at this stage to get a clear understanding of what users were experiencing before any high-fidelity concepts would be introduced to reduce any distraction of the design.

 
 
 
 
 

Testing

Time for a Test Drive

Usability Testing helps to understand how the test will be conducted, by outlining the objectives, methods, participants, and tasks to be completed. I drafted up a plan and then began recruiting participants. Results from each session were recorded with the participant’s consent. Each participant was given the same scenarios and previously developed task flows as the persona to see if they could navigate as anticiapted. A full outline of the plan can be viewed here.

 

Participants

  • 6 participants

  • Ages 25-60

  • Has been to the attraction

  • Enjoys natural attractions

Methodology

  • Evaluative Research

Method

  • Think aloud testing

Tasks

  • Task 1 - Look for tour information on the cavern

    • 6/6 Participants were able to find tour information by using the CTA on the homepage

    • 0% Error-rate

  • Task 2 - Learn about the billboard history

    • 6/6 Participants understood how to navigate to the learn about the billboard history

    • 0% Error-rate

  • Task 3 - Find information on how caverns are made

    • 5/6 Participants understood how to navigate to the Geology page to learn of how caverns are made

    • 1% Error-rate

 

Mapping Observations

From the usability testing, an affinity map could be comprised. The affinity map serves to document all observations from user testing and identify specific insights to improve usability. Each color represents a different participant.

 

Priority Improvements

By compiling observations from user testing, patterns of user experiences were able to be identified and placed into a priority matrix to gauge the level of effort needed to complete suggested updates.

 
 
 
 
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Ideate

Understanding the Brand

Now that the mid-fidelity prototype has been tested and valuable insights from testing have been acquired, it was necessary to revisit the ideate phase to begin building out the brand image and high fidelity concepts.

Before designing a logo and style guide, a mood board was assembled to gather multiple inspirations around the attributes identified for the brand:

  • Quirky

  • Charismatic

  • Earthy

  • Rugged

  • Lowbrow

 

Giving the Cave some Style

The style guide now establishes the brand identity for Secret Caverns. All elements inspired from the mood board such as color, typography, and layout were then compiled to give developers a clear idea of what the appearance of the site will adhere to.

While taking a tour, I took lots of photos of the cavern which are seen throughout the design!

Logo Design

Since Secret Caverns has a strong affinity with its original imagery, keeping true to its oddities was a priority. A logo was created by modifying existing imagery that resembled something similar to what many have referred to as “8-bit graphics”. Considering the highlight attraction of the cavern is a waterfall and all original billboard imagery depicts this, it only felt fitting to make that the caverns logo identity. The wordmark was also revised for a more modern appeal.

 

Kicking into High Gear

Based on the mid-fidelity wireframes and design elements chosen, high-fidelity concepts were then composited to show a more realistic version of the appearance of the site. The responsive designs are also reflected below.

 

Priority Revisions

As time was limited, priority revisions were made based on the data obtained from the affinity map.

Users were uncertain of what the “Billboards” category was in the navigation and how it pertained to caves, so the name was changed to “Our Famous Signs” to reduce confusion and instead pique curiosity.

Users also felt that advisories were not more clearly evident, so increasing its visibility by creating its own section amplified the importance of its information on the About page. The need to book a tour was also mentioned, but because the business tours on the hour, every hour, increasing the size of this was necessary. Using a quirky original character to speak with a word bubble, helped to deliver this.

The more detailed insights were considered but will need to be fully built out at a later date, including a pop window or link that navigates users to contact the business with any questions, as well as breaking up more text-heavy pages.

Overall adjustments:

  • Background color was adjusted by changing the direction of the gradient to give the appearance of entering a cave

  • The wormark was increased and the logo was swapped to the left side

  • Sticky navigation bar was added

  • Images were swapped out to reflect appropriate content on each page

  • Color treatment of images was adjusted to black overlay on Home and Geology pages

 
 
 
 

Reflections

This is the second UX design project I’ve executed solo. One of the main takeaways was learning to manage my time, as this was a project expected to be completed within 80 hours, from research to prototype to branding. This taught me a valuable lesson in how to develop relationships with real clients and build deeper connections within my community. I learned how to stick more with my design choices and move forward with what I have to remain consistent in managing my time and client expectations. I look forward to continuing to revise the site as more time allows as it was such a pleasure to play up the odd qualities of an attraction nesting right in my own hometown.

Next Steps

Now that the design has been tested and revised, it’s time to enter the development phase. Considering this is a very small business and I would be the sole designer, the site would most likely be built or executed with the help of a prebuilt platform, adjusting the design to fit the specs of the platform and the client’s budget. This is still an ongoing project and I will continue to stay in contact with the business if they choose to move forward with this concept and my assistance.

Updates and revisions will be a consistent process as the design evolves and caters to the relevant needs of the user and the business.

 
 
 

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