Culture in Design
Culture is incredibly important to skiers when selecting where they will buy a season pass. Often the culture and "vibe" of a ski area are more important than the amenities. In this project, I interviewed skiers to discover the importance of culture and redesigned the website of a local ski area to prioritize culture communication.
Role
UX Designer
What I did
Human-centered design phases
Result
High-fidelity prototype with greater focus on culture
Empathize
Interviewing skiers about ski area websites to get a greater understanding of the user.
Questions
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Say everything that comes to mind when you think “ski area website”
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What is the worst ski area website you have used? (why)
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How do you use ski websites differently from others?
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What do you think ski area websites will look like in 5 years?
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Do you prefer buying ski passes online or in person?
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Anything else?
Takeaways
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Community was a big deal to the interviewee. It seems like as long as the terrain of an area is to a certain level of quality, the community will be the deciding factor for a skier.
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Skiing is expensive, so cost information is essential. The outdoor industry is perceived to have consistency in its web design. This could be utilized to influence the feel of a site.
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The interviewee has been skiing for a long time; their choice of where they will ski is more about the ski area, not the website. The website should readily give the information experienced skiers want.
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Surprisingly, more convincing points on why to buy a pass from one resort over another were wanted, but not at the expense of quickly finding information. For example, Alta’s website has a “Mountain” section and a “Ski” section, differentiating resort info and ski costs.
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Skiing can be very exclusive, but resorts are focusing on making it more inclusive. Design could play a role in this, things like blogs could provide information about how to find gear, get lessons, and make the experience go smoother.
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Intimidating was a word that was used a lot. Focus on making the experience more approachable.
Define
Focusing on the right problem.
“If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”
-Albert Einstein
​[College-aged skier] needs a way to [decide which ski area] because [culture is most important], but it is not currently communicated well on ski area websites.
Ideate
Brainstorming as many ideas as possible.
Deciding which ones the user will actual enjoy.
Empathy Map
Brainstorming
The Solution: An About Us Revamp
An “About Us” revamp includes a new interactive timeline, a focus on video, and better integration of history. The timeline would possibly be placed somewhere on the front page to be seen by more users and will communicate an essential part of a ski resort’s culture: its history.
Right now the timeline is hidden alongside valuable information about the mountain within the “About Us” section. It should be a focus and something fun to interact with. Additionally, “About Us” is where the group thought the mailing address and hours were located, not information about culture. It would be more valuable to integrate this information across the webpage or to rework its wording and structure. A “The Magic” section could work, just something that draws more attention than “About Us.” Finally, a new video is to be added. The video would either be integrated into the new About Us section or featured on the home page.
Prototype
Making a very lightweight version of the solution to ensure time is not wasted on a ill-fitting solution.
The initial prototype involved two options for user flows. One involved a timeline on the frontpage, with a video in a new “About Us” section, and the other was vice versa: a video on the front page and a video in “About Us.”
Homepage 1
Homepage 1
Timeline 1
Timeline 2
Test
Getting the prototype in front of users to see if the solution could work.
“The first such truth is that at least half of our ideas are just not going to work.”
-Marty Cagan
Testing Plan
The user should be able to:
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Buy lift tickets/season passes
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Find lodging
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Set up equipment rentals (or at least find information about rentals)
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Learn why they should ski at our ski area vs competitors (culture-what I’m trying to test)
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Learn weather and traffic information
Tasks
Prototype Tasks
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*Prototype*
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Task: Buy a lift ticket or ski pass
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Scenario: You are a first-time skier and want to buy a day ticket. Use the prototype to find where to purchase a pass.
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*Prototype*
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Task: Learn current weather and traffic conditions
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Scenario: It’s the morning of your first ski day, and you want to know how to dress and the traffic conditions. Find weather and traffic information.
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*Prototype*
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Task: Decide where to ski based only on a website
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Scenario: You are a lifelong skier from Northern California. In the Fall, you move to Utah to study at the University of Utah. After skiing for so long, the vibe and culture of a ski area are your primary concern, and you need to choose where you will ski in your new home state. Discover the culture of the ski area to decide where you will ski.
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Competitor Tasks
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*Website*
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Task: Buy a lift ticket or ski pass
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Scenario: You are trying skiing for the first time and want to buy a day ticket. Use the website to find where to purchase a pass.
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*Website*
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Task: Learn current weather and traffic conditions
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Scenario: It’s the morning of a ski day, and you want to know how to dress and the traffic conditions. Find weather and traffic information.
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*Website*
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Task: Find lodging
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Scenario: You are from Montana, but want to visit Utah for a ski trip. You want to spend your nights somewhere extremely close to the Mountain. Find a hotel or place to stay.
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*Website*
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Task: Decide where to ski based only on a website
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Scenario: You are a lifelong skier from Northern California. In the Fall, you move to Utah to study at the University of Utah. After skiing for so long, the vibe and culture of a ski area are your primary concern, and you need to choose where you will ski in Utah.
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Discover the culture of the ski area to decide where you will ski.
Results
Unfortunately, it seems that the history of a ski area is much less important to the perception of culture than I had hoped. If I include a timeline in further prototypes, it is probably best to give it less weight and real estate. A horizontal scroll timeline might be better, and placing it somewhere less prominent so it does not get in the way of any user actions.
Generally, each test participant expressed a desire to know more about the culture of an area in the now rather than in their history. Customer testimonials seemed like an excellent way to communicate this, as it gives users an idea of what kind of person skis there and what they have to say about the place. This lets ski areas express their culture without just outright saying it, risking sounding like a marketing machine.
“Our Difference” seemed like better wording than “The Tradition”; however both elicited some initial confusion. Maybe “About Beaver Mountain” is the best communicator.
What needs changing?
A lot, unfortunately, but perhaps that is a good thing. My usability testing interviews revealed that timelines were not nearly as important to users as I had thought. All users interviewed expressed that the culture of a ski area had much more to do with what the place is like now, not what it was. When asked to find culture, users wanted to know 1-what kind of skiers go to the resort and 2- what those skiers say about the place.
So, the new prototypes needed to aggressively minimize the focus on timelines, and expound more upon what the culture of the ski resort is in the present.
The first change made was to remove prototype option 2 from the project. This option was predominantly focused on the timeline, so it was deemed misfocused.
Next, a new testimonials section was made. These reorient focus away from history and towards what the place is today. Testimonials are wonderfully effective at communicating the type of person who skis at the area, and what they think of the resort. The new section scrolls horizontally and takes up very little space. A redesign of the timeline was also necessary. There is still a place for the timeline, even if the focus is being removed. The new timeline is similarly horizontal and compact.
Finally, some wording changes were necessary. “The Tradition” became “Our Difference” because testing indicated that the latter was more accurate to what I was trying to communicate. “Our Difference” includes text about the ski area, testimonials, and the new timeline. Given the opportunity, I would love to do some A/B testing and determine if “Our Difference” or “About Us/Beaver” would be more effective wording.
High Fidelity Redesign
"Can't win them all"
-Nacho Libre
A final redesign, with a remodeled “Who we are” section, better horizontal navigation, cleaner sections, and more intuitive user flows.
Accessibility
