Creating an elevated presence and user experience
The Umstead Hotel and Spa offers a Forbes five-star experience, surrounded by nature. They required stronger representation of their premium amenities, including their acclaimed spa and fine-dining restaurant. They also wanted to focus on growth in wedding reservations at the property. To achieve this, I gave the website a fresh look and thoughtfully streamlined content for a better user experience.
The site has been recognized as a Gold winner in the Horizon Interactive Awards, and has received an Award of Excellence in the Communicator Awards.
Roles: UI Design, User Experience
A site reimagined
Large imagery and video are used to immerse the viewer and transport them to the property, giving them a sense of the in-person experience. The new navigation is clean and simple allowing guests to easily locate pages and content that were previously hidden or hard to find. Call outs are strategically used on the homepage and throughout to funnel the guests further into the site to learn more about their five-star experience.
Visually, the new site is clean and simple. Small natural elements were introduced throughout the design to subtly reinforce the property’s location and to give the five-star hotel a unique, polished feel. Subtle animations are used throughout. Content and imagery are organized to tell a story and clear calls to action are used to ensure guest engagement.
A smoother experience
Copy throughout the site needed to be reorganized in order to make it easy for guests to find and consume content. Landing pages funnel guests to internal pages where they can find more details about a specific topic or feature of the hotel. Tabs and accordions are used on content-heavy pages to allow guests to easily scan and find information. Imagery is strategically used to balance text throughout the site, which keeps pages and content visually appealing and interesting to guests.
Experience it for yourself
