Cloud 9 Walkers Case Study

C9W

Cloud 9 Walkers Website Redesign Case Study May 2020

Table of Contents 1

Research

2

Ideate

3

Synthesis

4

Design

UX Questionnaire Opportunity Workshop Strategy Workshop Research Summary Project Brief Learning Plan Comparative Assessment Summary Proto-Persona Heuristic Markups + Emotional Graph 2x2 Graph + Content Patterns Design Recommendation Summaries Design Brief Low Fidelity Sketches Medium Fidelity Wireframes Final Design

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Research 4 8 11 13

UX Questionnaire Opportunity Workshop Strategy Workshop Research Summary

UX Questionnaire A user experience questionnaire is deceptively simple: it’s just a standard list of questions for you to ask yourself about a product or user experience at the start of any engagement. Why not just start working on the user experience and see where things go? In theory, if a product has a clear purpose and a specific audience, and you have some good ideas for how to improve the user experience, then you’re all set. Of course, product design can go off track for any number of reasons. UX work, in particular, often is brought in as a silver bullet to solve what can be a dizzying set of challenges, ranging from lack of product strategy to issues with the organizational structure. The user interface is often where these problems become visible.

To locate and solve these problems, our research group asked some simple questions like what our user goals were, what tasks they were trying to accomplish, and identifying success measures.

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UX Questionnaire Strategy

• On the Cloud 9 Walker website our team will use the uniqueness of the horse breed we specialize in selling as a marketing strategy. Cloud 9 Walker specializes in selling a specific kind of domestic horse.

Breeds that are especially docile, obedient, and loving.

• We will also make a point to organize the information so we can clearly show the site visitor a list of amazing testimonials and the ranches long history of dealing with this specific breed.

• The quality of care and our TWHBEA (​Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ and Exhibitors’ Association) ​ certification will be highlighted on the main page

Business Goals

• Advertise and market the Cloud 9 Walker horse ranch as a highly regarded breeder, trainer, and seller of gaited horses and unique therapy sessions.

• Display the brand’s unique identity through a beautiful site revamp and reorganization of information.

User Goals

• Create an easy to navigate interface so the full Cloud Nine Walker experience can be appreciated through the visitation of only a website.

• Make this website easily accessible, even for those who have a lack of computer knowledge and dated experience using the internet, because some of our customers will be lacking that.

• Gear the aesthetic of site towards animal friendly and outdoorsy people.

• Make contact info, location, etc… immediately available because all of the sales are done through contact and visits to physical location.

• Some visitors will be on our site with no prior experience with gaited horses. We will need to create links on the homepage so the site visitor can find out more about specific breeds and what owning a gaited horse is like (care, cost, etc…)

UX Questionnaire Tasks and Scenarios

• Some visitors will be on our site with no prior experience with gaited horses. We will need to create links on the homepage so the site visitor can find out more about specific breeds and what owning a gaited horse is like (care, cost, etc…)

Success Measures

• Initial research goals • Competitive audit, see what other websites have to offer and how they compare/contrast.

• Acquire a knowledge of the vast horse terminology so we can better understand the product we are dealing with.

• Continuous communication between design team/ developer/ and client • Manage deadlines and tasks • Making sure clients needs will be met before work is started. Avoid scope work • Our client will need to provide assets for the designers to manage between them and the dev team.

• Contact/ location/ social info • Photo assets (new borns, stallions, best in show, happy owners, etc…)

• Updates on new horses that the ranch will be selling/sold in the near future.

• Updates on testimonials

Tasks and Scenarios

• Create a high volume of traffic to the website.

• Increase rate of first time visitors • Track where and when the traffic is increasing/decreasing, and try to find out why that is.

• Track how visitors are finding out about the site (how the site is marketed).

• Collect analytics and data of the consumer • Use analytics to see if company is growing over time • Compare/ contrast data of visitor information before and after site change.

• Because our site is not selling any horses directly on site, monitor the ebbs and flows of customers reaching out through other forms of contact.

UX Questionnaire Key Dates and Milestones

• Initial Research • Initial Design Pitch • Creative information architecture/ structure of homepage.

• March Deadline of site design launch.

Reg Flags

• Current​​website has information overload/ we may have to decide what to reduce it to through communication with client.

Opportunity Workshop An opportunity workshop is a way to quickly assess what work needs to be done to improve the user experience, what’s highest priority from a business perspective, and what will have the most impact from a user perspective.

My research team used an opportunity workshop to find ourselves having general discussions about the need for an improved user experience, but there is no clear momentum or sense of how to get there.

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Opportunity Workshop Goals

• Marketing the breeding, training, and selling of specific types of horses: Therapy horses, Tennessee Walking Horses, other gaited horse breeds • Showcase the friendly, docile nature of the horses on their website.

• Display the level of care and expertise of the ranch staff.

Problems

• The website’s purpose is vague, or not as clear as it could be.

• The website is text-heavy with a disconnected information not directly related to the objective of the website.

• Information needs to be restructured in sections by importance, relevance, and into specific, navigable categories.

• Navigation makes it difficult for users to find what they need quickly. Clear tabs and breadcrumbs would be a big help to guide users to the information they may be trying to access.

User Easy Access Plan

• Social media sites links and modules for stories • A system to schedule appointments/visits • Testimonials • Breed/age/sex information for the horses they offer for purchase, information on the purchasing/ maintenance/care of the horses.

Additional Problems

• There is a need for a clarified branding strategy including a stronger system of branding materials such as a logo, banners, etc. There is a good start with decent leverage to work off of, but it needs some polishing and definition in order for it to directly connect with the message that is attempting to be portrayed.

• Several type inconsistencies were found in the content on the website. It would be helpful to narrow it down to two typefaces with a set system of colors, font sizes, with clear titles, subtitles, body content, and hyperlinks. Some spot cleaning with grammatical errors and syntax would be a huge help as well.

• Legibility is an issue. Less busy imagery with colors that do not blend in with the text could greatly optimize visibility.

Opportunity Workshop Strengths

• On the website as it stands, it is clearly seen that the horses are well loved, cared for, and happy. The quality of care is very apparent.

• The message of docile, family-friendly, wholesome horses and ranch environment is seen, although could definitely be highlighted even more.

• There is a strong, multi-platform, social media presence, with a following of over 15,000 people. There is a fair amount of engagement on several of the platforms and a lot of possible traffic that can be directed towards the website and the services offered.

• The business practices alone seem to be holding up well, judging from the multitude of testimonials on the website. This can help leverage business when the proof is in the pudding. Though the pudding looks much more appetizing when eaten out of a nice bowl and not a Ziploc bag. Presentation is everything.

Themes

• The need for proper organization framework is a common theme among imagery, content, and navigation.

• The need for content clarity, visual clarity, actionable clarity.

• Incredibly long pages with long passages of text. The pages need to be more concise.

• A variety of links to videos, photos, articles, etc are randomly strewn throughout the site pages. They need to be cleaned up.

Priority Action Items

• Constant development updates of testimonials and great stories from previously sold and showcased horse owners.

• Complete a clear, navigable, attractive online framework fit to showcase everything the business has to offer, including a branding package with organized web content to market the services offered in a clear and compelling way.

• The site visitors are expected to be exploring what Cloud 9 walkers has to offer. Already, the site has detailed information on their recently sold horses.

• This information could be reduced/ summarized and use as highlights in a more efficient and accessible way by organizing information properly.

Strategy Workshop When people talk about strategy, often they’re using the same word to talk about very different concepts. To one person, strategy is about prioritization and having a timeline. To another, it might mean establishing a vision for the future. Neither is wrong, and a strategy workshop can help you get clarity on both.

Each of our members in the research group brainstormed concepts that identified most with in our new user experience. We decided to focus on three main concepts, and then move forward with a pitch that could summarize what we were accomplishing with this project quickly.

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Strategy Workshop Triads

Empathize

(Inform the identity of the Ux) • Under the umbrella of design thinking, gain a complete understanding of consumer • Gain vast horse terms and EAT (Equine-assisted therapy) knowledge

Refined persona • We want to paint a clear picture for our audience • Brand identity • Communicates who we are • Identification Points Include: • Docile, family-friendly, wholesome horses and ranch environment • Quality of care and attentiveness provided by breeders/trainers • Smoothness of the horses distinctive walking style respected

Accessibility/ ease of use • Simplify navigation • Use breadcrumbs • Reduce microcopy • Storyboard path of navigation • Create F-shaped pattern • Use 3 clicks destination system • Establish simple hierarchy strategy • Focus on user-centered design

Quick Pitch!

Summary

“ Our main goal is to deliver a user-friendly experience for our target audience by creating a new platform that provides ease of use, a branding update, and a simple, streamlined, 3-click navigation system. This will allow our users to get to the information they need as fast as possible. We will introduce several facets of informational resources including a system for appointments, information on horses, the ranch and its breeders/ trainers, contact information and testimonials. Empathizing with our users needs under the umbrella of design thinking will be essential to the success of the Cloud 9 Walker website. To successfully accomplish this, we need to gain a complete understanding of our consumer niche from those in need of therapy to the experienced rancher. Lastly, we want to portray a refined persona in order to paint a clear picture for our audience and promote a strong brand identity that effectively communicates the Cloud 9 Walker brand to the consumer.

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Ideate

Project Brief User Profiles Comparative Assessment Competitive Assessment

Project Brief Priority List

• Restructure/Organize/Condense Information • How many pages for different facets of information we are going to need for easy access • System for appointments • “About Us” information • Contact/Social Media Outreach • Testimonials • Refined persona with new branding

2 x 2 Graph

User Profiles

User Profiles

Comparative Assessment Maverick Horseback Riding:

• This is a similar experience to the one offered by Cloud 9 Walkers. The competition lies in the similar value our client’s customers would find from this service. Maverick offers similar outdoorsy and calming horseback riding experiences. They book various trail rides in different locations around Texas. They also offer a family-friendly experience and offer trail rides for all age and experience levels, making it an inclusive service. They also have several horses for sale on their website for any interested buyers, much like Cloud 9.

The Experience

• Similar Product/Service • Trail riding tours for booking • They own multiple private ranch sites throughout Texas • No specified type of gaited walking horses for smooth rides as advertised on Cloud 9

Attractive Site features

• Simple, welcoming homepage aesthetic.

• Clear tabs on top of the page for easy navigation.

• Tasks are easily performed, guests can find easy to read tabs at the top of the page, as well as in the large hover-over hamburger menu in the top right corner.

• Informational hierarchy is apparent. The website immediately takes you to booking information and trail/horse information, is very informative and • Straight-forward.

• For their surplus of information, this site is well organized in a way that isn’t overwhelming. The site visitors get to choose how much information they would like to consume, as shown in image 3 with the blog.

This feature organizes the information into clean columns, with a “continue reading” drop-down • Button option.

• An additional Contact/Outreach option is available at the bottom of the homepage in case there are any clients who may need it after going over all the information. This is a great option to have as a safety net for any customer who may be confused or lost on the page for any reason. It is also a great tool for feedback from clients as well, as the site managers can make necessary changes to the information.

Comparative Assessment Image 1: Homepage/tabs

Image 2: Online Booking Service Page

Image 3: Informational Blog

Image 3: Informational Blog

Comparative Assessment Informed Redesign

Based on the analysis of the competition, suggestions for the redesign of the site are listed below based upon the analysis of the Mavericks website: • A change in information organization, with easy to read, specific tabs on the top of the homepage, could greatly benefit our more visually-impaired personas so they can find the information they need in a way that is clearly displayed in a legible, organized manner.

• Basing the organizational systems of the Maverick website’s informative material in their blogs and informational sites with the optional “read more” tab could help our personas who may be easily overwhelmed with a lot of text and information feel at ease and in control regarding the intake of information because they would have a choice in the matter.

• Including a photo (or series of photos) only at the top of the website, with the information placed on a solid color background as users scroll further down aides in legibility and avoids over-stimulation and frustration that could serve as a potential issue with our personas who are easily overstimulated by a lot of color, business, and movement on the page.

• Incorporate Cloud 9’s many fantastic photographs in a setting where they don’t have to visually compete with the background or text, so the pictures can really shine on their own. This could be a great way to reel in any of our personas with the fun-loving personality, love, and care that Cloud 9’s photographic content can express.

• Install intuitive content management systems. Content authority.

Competitive Assessment MA Quarter Horses

Based on the analysis of the competition, suggestions for the redesign of the site are listed below based upon the analysis of the Mavericks website:

The Experience

• A horse ranch that holds the same standards and practices that a Cloud 9 Walker Ranch customer appreciates is MA Quarter Horses. The difference between Cloud 9 Walkers and MA Quarter Horses is the specific horse breeds that they sell. Specifically, MA Quarter Horses produces horses who e ​ xcel at sprinting short distances and do well in a performance setting, compared to a docile and gaited horse breed that Cloud 9 Walker breeds. Like Cloud 9 Walkers, they train and sell horses of different ages including: mares, stallions, and foals. They focus more on the genetics and science behind the horse breeds, and even have the horse’s lineage calculated to percentages. Their property is located about 450 miles Northwest of the Cloud 9 Walker Ranch, about an 8 hour drive.

Attractive Site features

• Provides a product and service that could be compared to Cloud 9 • They understand the fundamentals of what it takes to operate a quality horse ranch • Holds highest standard of knowing bloodlines and horse research • Bred to perform all kinds of ranch tasks ​including heading/healing, calf roping, team penning, steer wrestling, and are all around good, athletic horses • They raise ranch horses from foundation bloodlines of 4 horses that including Driftwood, Joe Hancock, Leo, and Blue Valentine

Competitive Assessment Image 1: Homepage

Image 2: Tab/ Stallions

Image 3: Tab/ Mares

Image 4: Tab/ Horses For Sale

Comparative Assessment Image 5: Tab/ Testimonials

Image 6: Tab/ Contact Information

Comparative Assessment Informed Redesign

Based on the analysis of the competition, suggestions for the redesign of the site are listed below based upon the analysis of the MA Quarter Horse website:

• A complete restructure of how the tool bar and overall architecture of how information is displayed.

Instead of long pages that the user needs to scroll through, audit some of the information, create links, and restructure the info into the respected toolbars. MA Quarter Horses uses very short pages with concise bodies of text to inform the user and it seems to work very well.

• Ma Quarter Horses has established a strong aesthetic and identity that is immediately recognized when visiting their site because they have incorporated it so well. The style may be a bit dated, but it strongly reiterates the serious dedication that they have toward their horses by using rugged western motifs. This can be compared to Cloud 9 Walkers site, as they already have a light blue color theme and clouds that represent how docile and pleasant their horses are, but the use of this style could be pulled off with better design execution. Cloud 9 could use a similar aesthetic approach to suit their website.

• MA Quarter has a great use of hierarchy on every page on their website, a design idea that we can certainly use and needs to implemented on the Cloud 9 Walker site.

• Include the amazing bios that Cloud 9 Walkers has them on their site, but refine and reduce them so it is not such a handful to read. These sections also need to be reorganized.

Comparative Assessment Leatherdale Farms

• Leatherdale Farms is a premier Hanoverian farm located in Minnesota and it is utilized as one of its young-horse training centers. Leatherdale Farms owns many horses who are currently competing around the world at the top of the sport. The Leatherdale Farms team is proud of their high-quality training, from starting young horses to competing in the international Grand Prix ring. The team includes top dressage athletes including German Olympian Helen Langehanenberg, U.S. Olympians Sue Blinks and Guenter Seidel, Canadian Grand Prix competitor Diane Creech, young-horse trainer Mike Suchanek and young rider Vanessa Creech-Terauds.

The Experience

• A very visual homepage, with large photographs featured, that change intermittently • Simple 6 tab toolbar displayed with easy access • Has modules with quotes from testimonials that also change intermittently • A Facebook module that lets the user scroll through the recent Facebook recent feed without leaving the homepage • A featured news section with updates and recent stories on their horses and owners • Easy access contact information on the top and bottom of the pages • Great information architecture and structure • Heuristic, easy to find out more information whether its on the horses, ranch news, contact information.

Comparative Assessment Image 1: Homepage/ Hero Image & Toolbar

Image 2: Homepage/ Featured News/ Testimonials

Image 3: Homepage/ About Us/ Facebook Module

Image 4: Stallion Page

Comparative Assessment Image 5: “Our Team” Page

Image 6: Contact Us

Comparative Assessment Informed Redesign

Based on the analysis of the competition, suggestions for the redesign of the site are listed below based upon the analysis of the MA Quarter Horse website: • Like MA Quarter Horses this website has a great structure and user friendly interface, these sites will be references when developing a new information architecture for the Cloud 9 walker site • Both these websites have about the same amount of tabs, compared to our site which has about double the tabs buttons in its toolbar • Three interesting modules were included in this website, that could maybe be used to an advantage on the Cloud 9 Walker site. This is the Facebook module, because of the following Cloud 9 has on their facebook this would be a great feature. Then intermittently changing testimonial quotes and large featured photos could also be included.

• Something that is missing that would look great on the Cloud 9 Walker website is the • “Our Team” page like Leatherdale uses. Discussion with the Cloud 9 team to generate user profiles on their own team members should be looked into.

• A well done contact page with a map/ info-graphic on how to get to the ranch is a great idea and should be referenced when designing our contact page. Also the fill out email section is a nice, easy way of getting in touch.

• The structure of the horse profiles is designed very well and easy to navigate, should be referenced also

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Synthesis Proto-Persona Emotional Graph Heuristic Markups

Proto Personas Jackson Bradley Byers Corn Farmer and Rancher Jackson Bradley Byers is a third generation Northern Texas rancher and corn farmer. He was raised on the same farm where his father and grandfather learned to produce livestock and various crops.

Now 61 years old, he and his family of six, and his beloved golden retriever, Axel, live and work on the very same ranch everyday. They now focus on owning a flourishing 350 acre corn farm. He has very strong traditional core values, loves his local community and the hard labor that goes into his farm and ranch.

Delights

Frustrations

This type of customer has a lifelong expertise with farm animals. He knows a good horse when he sees one. He expects various certifications with reputable breeders when purchasing a farm animal.

If buying an older farm animal he wants to know everything about it, including how it was trained, its bloodline, strict diet and behaviors. He undoubtedly is doing his research to make sure he is buying the superior animal before making a purchase.

Quality of care is of the utmost importance to him, and being familiar with and in steady contact with the breeder is a must.

Although a lifetime of hard work on his farm has really thickened Byers skin, he still becomes easily irritated. He hates laziness and cutting corners, which is displayed to him whenever he turns on his television and tunes in to the local news. Heavily involved in local politics, Byers is always giving educated opinions and ideas on how to make his community and state of Texas “great again.” He is always bringing up how millennial and the younger generation are disconnected with the real world because of technology. He says it has caused a lack of empathy for nature and that “city folk” and younger generations could care less for having stewardship of the land.

Proto Personas Caleb Congleton 4th Grade Student Caleb Congleton was 2 years old when his parents, Brian and Naidona, began to notice differences between him and other kids his age. It wasn’t until he was 6 years old, entering first grade, that Caleb was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a group of complex developmental disabilities that cause problems with social interaction and communication.

Delights

Frustrations

Caleb Congleton first started meeting with his therapy horse, Fiona, in 2018. Since his diagnosis of autism, his family has brought him to the Cloud 9 Walker ranch where one of our horse specialist matched Fiona to Caleb due to their personality traits.

Autism is a “spectrum disorder,” meaning that children affected by it show symptoms that range from mild to severe. Caleb is on the high-functioning end of the spectrum, with above-average intelligence, but noticeable social, behavioral and language issues. At age 4, he had a 20-word vocabulary when his peers were virtual chatterboxes, and he had trouble with his memory; he couldn’t even remember the names of family members.

His parents and family referred to these qualities as “Calebisms.” He would get fixated on particular things. “I think he watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 100 times and never got bored,” Naidona says.

He has an overall increase in level of social abilities since creating his bond with Fiona, and knows everything about her. They are the perfect match.

Proto Personas Annabelle Cole Human Resources Consultant Annabelle is a 42 year old woman, enjoys shopping, country music, and long walks by the river. She loves animals, knitting, red wine, and is a big Dallas Cowboys fan. She is a mother of three adult children, and was recently split from her partner after 35 years of marriage.

She suffers from chronic stress, and when she’s not at work she finds it hard to be alone in her newly empty house now that she is recently divorced and her children have moved out.

Delights

Frustrations

Annabelle is an avid facebook user, mainly as a means of entertainment when she is alone at home and in need of some social interaction. She discovered the Cloud 9 Walkers facebook page when a friend shared a post on her home feed. She began following the posts about the happy. She used to live in Austin Texas, but after the divorce, she moved back in with her parents on their old family farm in Wichita Falls. She is now considering purchasing a horse to care for.

Recent divorcee, high strung, prone to stress, has a hot temper, succumbs to bouts of anger, needs an outlet or support to unwind and work through her issues to temper and sort through her emotions.

Emotional Graph User Task: Finding Horse Information

Satisfied

Found Horse User Likes

Found Appealing Info

Misdirected or lost in info Lack of Hierarchy

Information overkill, text hard to read on background

Dissatisfied

Cannot find contact info Or how to book appointment

Heuristic Markups

Heuristic Markups

Heuristic Markups

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Design 38 40 42 44 46 47 48 49

Design Brief Information Architecture Plan Low Fidelity Sketches Medium Fidelity Wireframes Color Pallete Typography Artwork Final Design

Design Brief Upon analysis, our design team has concluded that the Cloud 9 Walkers company is a great brand with a lot of heart and potential, although we would like to propose some changes for the design of the website.

The website would greatly benefit from a better organization-based on hierarchy. We want to establish consistency and provide an intuitive, 3 click navigation system for site visitors.

Focus

• Change up the information organization, with easy and intuitive navigation and specific tabs on the top of the homepage. This will provide a better experience for any • Visually-impaired audience members or those who may be easily overwhelmed with louder visuals and large bodies of text.

• Incorporate Cloud 9’s many fantastic photographs in a setting where they don’t have to visually compete with the background or text. This will showcase the personality of Cloud 9’s brand and connect and empathize with the audience in a compelling way.

• Establish an online system for appointments that is intuitive and useful for the Cloud 9 site managers and customers. This helps both workflows and allows more people through the doors, or in this case gates, to the Cloud 9 ranch while avoiding any confusion, and any unannounced or unattended visitors to the Ranch.

• Advertise and market the Cloud 9 Walker horse ranch as a highly regarded breeder, trainer, and seller of gaited horses. With specifically tailored branding materials and web features, our design team plans to capture the Cloud 9 persona in a pursuit to expand the Cloud 9 following and set the bar higher for any competitors out there.

Empathy

• Family values are a huge factor that plays into the Cloud 9 Mantra. A site that appears warm, inviting, and trustworthy is a must.

• The Cloud 9 crew share a great sense of humor, as seen on their facebook posts. They are a fun-loving bunch and that sense of joy is extended to their customers. Their site redesign should be fun and possibly whimsical in nature.

• Freedom and harmony with nature. The site should have a light, airy, organic feel to it to match the earthiness and outdoorsy nature of their Ranch.

Design Brief User Profiles

• Tennessee’s Horse enthusiasts, for example, horse owners, breeders, trainers, ranchers, or generally anyone who has a love for or knowledge of the subject.

• Animal lovers, people who crave that connection to another sentient being from the natural world.

People who value non verbal communication and connection that comes with bonding with an animal.

• People in need of equine therapy, such as anyone who is going through tough life changes/transitions like a job/relationship/circumstance change. This also includes demographics of people with disabilities, who gain a lot from tactile interaction and connection with animals.

• Nature Enthusiasts, people who enjoy the outdoors, the freeing feelings and sense of relaxation it brings.

Features and functions

• Homepage- with facebook module, transitioning featured testimonials liked to full testimonial page, featured photo slides, and a contact form for any questions or concerns.

• Visit scheduling system. This would allow site visitors who are interested in visiting the Ranch to set a date and time to do so.

• A “meet our team” section to inform guests about the experienced and friendly staff of Cloud 9.

Including staff bios, backgrounds, years of experience or areas of expertise, along with a professional headshot of each staff member.

• A page featuring the horses that are for sale, along with pictures, information, and ownership guidelines.

Restriction and expectations

• Display the brand’s unique identity through a beautiful site revamp and reorganization of information.

• We expect to build a memorable user-friendly experience to connect Cloud 9 Walkers to their online audience.

• We expect to provide the users with a platform to get the information they need as fast as possible, to excite, empathize with, and capture them, and to ultimately get more people to schedule appointments to visit the ranch.

• We as designers must drive the idea that Cloud 9 is a relaxing, smooth, and fun experience home with visuals and features that reflect this concept.

Information Architecture Plan Homepage

General Info

Photo Module

Testimonial Module

Featured News Section

Facebook Module

Appointment System

Appointment Scheduling Feature Event Calendar

Contact Information

Map insert

Basic contact information

Contact form

Meet Our Team Bio Page for Ranch Staff

Horses Informational page on the horse breeds offered by Cloud 9 Walkers

Information Architecture Plan

Content Inventory Title 1

Content Type

Sample Content

Notes

Homepage

1.1

Photo Module

User Generated

1.2

Testimonial module

Editorial

“Cloud 9 has been such a great experience for my family and I, we couldn’t reccommend them enough.”

Cloud 9 has a lot of great customer testimonials to work with. As they are displayed now, with large, run-on blocks of text, we would suggest narrowing them down to single sentence samples for display on the homepage that users can click on to reveal more on a separate testimonials page.

1.3

Featured News Section

Editorial

“Tenessee Walking Horses Deemed ‘Friendliest horse breed in Texas’ by Horse Magazine

This section could be based featured articles about Cloud 9’s community engagement including any local events, shows, meet ups, discussion panels, meetings, etc. This is not currently an o cial section included on the website, but with all of the information they provide on multiple separate pages on the site, it could easily be put together.

1.4

Facebook Module

User Generated

“This weekend our horses experienced the first rain of the season, and it didn’t stop us from hitting the trails!”

The Cloud9 walkers facebook page has a very large following of over 15,000 people, with each post or repost o their feed getting an average of 100-300 likes. Engagement is very active and a module featured on the homepage would be a great tool to invite newcomers to join their facebook community.

2

Photos of Horses and people on trails/ranch.

Families, kids, couples, people with the horses.

There is a lot of photographic content to utilize. It could be very e ective for site visitors if organized and showcased in a way where it is not visually competing with any text or busy background imagery.

Contact Information

2.1

Map insert

Support

A map graphic including the ranch location Link to google maps directions

This is a great visual for site guests who are more inclined to red maps, as well as guests who enjoy using google maps for navigation. It is a useful tool to bring guests in to the physical site with ease.

2.2

Basic contact information

Support

Email Phone number Social media links

Having a designated space for site guests to access all contact information is a great solution for the redesign.

The site as it stands now has several; di erent emails displayed in di erent places from page to page on the site, as well as the rest of the contact info buried at the bottom or in between the page content.

2.3

Contact form

Support

3

This is a great tool for any site visitors who may have additional questions or concerns they would like directly addressed.

Appointment System

3.1

Appointment Scheduling Feature

Support

3.2

Event Calendar

Support

4

Meet Our Team

4.1

Fill-in Sections for: Name Email Phone number Message box

Bio Page for Ranch Sta

User Generated

Time of appointment Date of appointment

This feature would be very important for getting site visitors through the doors. It would streamline the entire process for client visits to the ranch, and allow the Ranch owners some cwd control and avoid random drop-ins, especially if the Ranch isn’t open.

This would increase organization and peace of mind for the site managers and aid in scheduling.

Headshots of Sta members Description of sta members, years of experience, specialization, etc.

This is currently a page on the Cloud 9 website, but could be re-done to give it a fresh face.

Low Fi Sketches

Low Fi Sketches

Medium Fidelity Wireframes

Medium Fidelity Wireframes

Color Palette

#7493B3

#B39562

#BFDFFF

#FFE7BF

#D9ECFF

#F8F0E1

#F1F9FF

#FCF7ED

Typography

Prospectus Pro XL Bold

Prospectus Pro XL Semi-bold

Prospectus Pro XL Semi-bold Italic

Century Gothic Pro Bold

Century Gothic Pro Regular

Prospectus Pro XL Prospectus Pro XL Prospectus Pro XL

Century Gothic Pro Century Gothic Pro

Artwork

Final Designs

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