Services
Brand Intelligence
Creative Development
Industry
Travel & Hospitality
2023
Creating a website that was on par with the Escena golf and dining experience
Escena partnered with Magnetic to reimagine their premier golf and dining property. Escena had 2 domains that needed to strategically combine to create a unified experience for its patrons. One of the existing sites catered to Golf, and the other site was an information site for a master-planned residential community. Magnetic needed to bring this all together seamlessly and create a top-notch web experience to match the prestige of the Escena property. To accomplish this, Magnetic was tasked with:
- UX Discovery and Research
- Site Map / Wireframes
- Site Design
- Development
Understanding the Escena Clientele
Working with the team at Escena, we quickly realized how much the property had to offer. This wasn’t just a golf course, there were many facets to Escena that needed to be considered from different customers' points of view.
Yes, Escena is a Nicklaus Designed golf course that was ranked the No. 6 public course in California, but it is also home to an award-winning restaurant, wedding and event spaces, and is the centerpiece of a master-planned community, and we needed to tell the complete story to their client personas.
The Escena Website Plan
We started by exploring a new site map, making sure that we created a user experience that allowed users to get to the content they were looking for with as few of clicks as possible. We then created high-fidelity wire frames to account for all the content that was to be housed under the new Escena site.
Creative Exploration
Magnetic started with creative exploration assembling mood boards and style tiles to imagine what the look and feel of the Escena site could be. We explored typography, color and web design elements to define how these would all come together to create a look that represented the Escena brand.
Escena Site Design
Escena really wanted the site to showcase the photography they had of the property to drive appeal to potential customers. We worked with images from renowned photographers Channing Benjamin who is well known for his golf landscape photography and Chris Miller who is an award-winning image maker that spans architecture, style and food. We wanted this site to have a gallery feel to it, while still maintaining a user experience that is modern and easy to navigate.
One of the highlight features of the site was the course tour. Again utilizing the stunning course photography of Channing Benjamin we created an interactive carousel that educated golfers on the details of each hole.
Optimizing for Mobile
Although our research and audit found that the majority of visitors to the site were on a desktop computer, we had to make sure that the Escena site looked as good on mobile as it did on the desktop. Knowing that paid media campaigns were going to be used to drive traffic and awareness to the site post-launch, it needed to be mobile-friendly and leave the same impression that the desktop view provided.
Development
Our client was familiar with WordPress, and asked that we utilize the CMS to build the new site. They needed the ability to change out content and images regularly without the need for a developer on staff.
Significant improvements were made to the website to enhance its functionality and user experience. Firstly, implementing a responsive design that adapted to different screen sizes and devices, Secondly, optimizing the site’s loading speed to help reduce bounce rates and increase engagement.
Additionally, we added multiple integrations for user communication and inquiries for restaurant reservations, tee times and event management.
Services
Brand Intelligence
- Research & Discovery
Creative Development
- Creative Development