Aspen Snowmass, best known for its world-class ski resorts, the X-Games, and Aspen Music Festival, needed a new digital entity that reflected their elevated image while delivering a seamless online experience for their upscale travelers. The end result had to provide both a sense of luxury and intuitive functionality. The goal was to create a sophisticated, user-friendly platform that seamlessly guided users to book tickets, season passes, and luxury accommodations.
As Creative Director on this project my challenge was to establish and guide a design and user experience that felt both luxurious and intuitive. The primary goal of the updated experience was to increase conversions across all bookings: tickets and passes, rentals, and lodging. I used detailed user research to understand the needs and behaviors of their key audiences—affluent travelers and their personal assistants.
Restructured site architecture and enhanced way finding
Provided quick access to booking in context of the user's experience
Updated digital brand strategy and visual identity
With audience research assisting in defining the consumer path, I mapped out user journeys that streamlined the booking process and improved overall navigation.
The previous iteration of the Aspen Snowmass experience was cluttered and tiring. Customers could not find their way to the information they needed, and were missing important moments in the experience to easily book their package.
The design focus was on merging elegance with functionality. I developed the information architecture to make it easy for users to find and book what they needed while ensuring the site embodied the brand’s refined image. Throughout the project, I kept the user experience at the forefront, ensuring every interaction felt seamless and premium.
A key addition to the new experience was a contextual booking widget. This widget dynamically adapted based on the user’s actions, offering relevant booking options at the right moments.
A challenge that needed hurdling was ensuring all booking engines could speak with the Aspen Snowmass experience at the right moment in the user journey. By collaborating with my back-end engineering team, we were able to present customers with the right solution in the right scenarios.
Whether users were browsing accommodations, previewing activities, or checking lift ticket prices, the enhanced booking widget provided immediate access to booking options without disrupting their journey. This significantly helped streamline conversions by reducing friction in the user flow and making the booking process more accessible and integrated.
I designed the mobile navigation with a focus on natural user interaction patterns, ensuring the “Book Now” call to action was prominently positioned for ease of access. Understanding that mobile users typically interact most comfortably within the lower portion of the screen—often called the “thumb zone”—I placed the “Book Now” button near the bottom for quick, effortless tapping.
This approach is backed by research from Nielsen Norman Group, which highlights that users prefer and perform better with interfaces that align with their natural thumb reach. By strategically positioning the primary action in this area, I enhanced the overall user experience, making it intuitive for users to complete their booking journey with minimal friction.
The results spoke for themselves: within a year of launch, the redesigned website drove a 60% increase in conversions for tickets, passes, and lodging.
The new site not only aligned with Aspen Snowmass’s prestigious brand and also delivered a top-notch user experience, contributing significantly to the destination’s business growth.
60%
increase in conversions for tickets, passes, and lodging.
