Hollytree Country Club
Country club located in Tyler, Texas
Background:
Hollytree Country Club is a country club located in Tyler Texas. Their membership offers more than just a place for golf, tennis and dining. Their goal is to help build relationships and enrich the lives of members so they can flourish personally, professionally, and socially.
Problem:
The client is looking to add to their online presence. They already have a desktop website, but it needs updating. They want to be able to refine their overall branding while capturing the lifestyle of what they provide to members. They also want to create an inviting website that helps generate memberships. Through this, they hope to provide a personalized experience for members using the Hollytree website. I worked side by side with Hollytree to help them deliver this goal.
Objectives:
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Redesign Hollytree Country Club's current website
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Refine overall branding while capturing lifestyle of members
Scope:
Tools: Figma, Maze, Miro
Role: UX Designer
Duration: 2 months
Research:
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Personas
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Journey map
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Card sort
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Usability testing
SWOT Analysis
Creating a SWOT analysis initially of the current website helped me to understand what was going well already and address what was lacking to minimize any risks moving forward. I found that although Hollytree had a great online presence outside of the website, the website itself didn't capture the true essence of Hollytree.
Strengths​
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Multiple amenities
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Online presence/social media with ratings does well.
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Established community
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Beautiful club
Weaknesses​
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Very dated website (photography is dated)
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Very wordy
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Lack of event information
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Lack of identity + theme
Opportunities ​
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Showcase more events on website
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Alignment consistency (for imagery and text)
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More imagery to convey experience
Threats
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Competitors do well with simplicity
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Competitors do well with overall imagery
Usability Test
​After conducting initial research (including looking at competitors.) I had 10 people go through the website and give us an overall evaluation on the website. I asked both members and non-members of country clubs.
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Users found it difficult to navigate throughout the website
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People wished there were better imagery for weddings
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Users had difficulty finding information on private spaces vs. information on costs/scheduling for spaces
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Users wanted imagery of the golf course
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People found the website wordy
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Users often got bored and bounced out
"Website has too much text"​
"I'm confused"
"There's a lot of unnecessary information"​
"Images are very low resolution"
User Interviews:
I conducted 12 user interviews. I focused mainly on country club members, but I also had some non-country members. I wanted to understand why members attend country clubs and understand their behaviors/goals.
From the information I received from our user interviews, I were able to create an affinity map to help organize our information.
Overview and trends:
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People use their country club membership to socialize + network
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Childcare is a huge aspect for people with families
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People prefer website to match their country club experience
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Variety for dining is important
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Golfers have memberships for easier tee times
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Exclusivity is important
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Want a variety of events for current members
Who are the users?
Based off the interviews, I was able to create both a primary and secondary user. I used these to ground me throughout the process.
Family membership
Networking membership
Problem Statement:
Current members need an easy and accessible way to find information about Hollytree organized events, dining, and amenities so they can stay connected.
Solution
Current members will be able to use the Hollytree website to easily find information they need to feel connected.
Card Sort
From the open card sort, I was able to understand what user's expectations for the website. Using that information, I conducted a closed card sort with 40 labels amongst 12 participants. I provided users with labels both from the original website and patterns I saw from our open card sort.
18.18% put junior golf under kids section
44.45% put child care under kids section
63% put Junior golf under Golf
63% put weather on homepage
Above were some highlights from our card sort. Less than 20 percent put junior golf under kid's section while 63 percent of participants put junior golf under the general golf section. I had not anticipated this, but made sure to incorporate it into our design.
Site Map
Using the patterns we found in the card sort, I created a site map to help better visualize how our navigation would be set up.
Sketches and Low-Fidelity Wireframes
After completing our research and ideating, I moved on to sketch out our pages and create low fidelity wireframes. For the design, I wanted a visual first approach that addressed user's problems and enhanced their experience. I also wanted to make sure that there was an exclusive feel throughout the design. Below are some of the main pages we designed.
• Room for imagery to capture lifestyle (socializing, golf course, etc.)
• Events were huge so we included that on homepage
• Top two popular amenities mentioned were golf and tennis in interviews so that was put on homepage
• Based off research: Resorts often are visually first to capture lifestyle
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Include imagery of people with families as well as people networking/socializing (targeting our main users
Hamburger menu with navigation labels from card sort
Hero image to capture lifestyle of members (imagery of someone playing golf)
Golf and tennis were most popular sports during interviews so we made sure to highlight on homepage
Members want a way to stay update about events and dining so highlighted on hompage
During initial usability testing, users wanted better imagery for wedding photos so we made sure to highlight that
Users had difficulty differentiating between private events and information about event space (both had a lot of information) so we made sure to highlight the differences
Featured story of weddings/events that went well to build credibility among users
Hero image capturing dining experience at Hollytree
Show imagery of most popular dining hall
Imagery of meals as well as information about dining halls/menus
Wine lockers are what set Hollytree apart from other country clubs so important to mention
Users wanted to see the general view of the golf course so we made sure to highlight that
Junior golf was highlighted because our primary audience were families
Style guide
Mood Board + Color Palette
To move on to high-fidelity prototyping, I created a mood board that had colors from golf courses and a shades of blue to create a welcoming feel.
Typography
When deciding on font, it was important to choose a font that was both readable, but was on brand with the exclusive feel/branding I was going for. For headings, I chose optima and open sans for sub-headings.
Heading 1
Heading 2
Body + Buttons
Iconography + UI Elements
Grid
Number of columns: 12
Gutter width: 20px
Column width: Auto
Margin: 70px
Imagery
Use imagery of people networking with others visibly enjoying themselves
Use imagery of families together
Use images with people dining together
Break Points For Responsive Design
In order to have a responsive design, I created breaking points for web, iPad and mobile.
Web
iPad
Mobile
Usability Testing
After creating the high-fidelity screens, I conducted 29 user tests to see how functional the redesign was. From our usability tests, I found that:
• Users had a much easier time navigating through the website
• Users were able to find information quickly
• Users loved the design and felt that it was intuitive, modern and user friendly.
​• Users expected more information from the events page (pressed non-hotspot areas like the images)
As a result, I refined our prototype to:
• Refined Events page with more information under imagery and created hotspots for images to take users to an informational page
