Bryce Resort
Bryce Resort is a member-owned mountain resort nestled in the Shenandoah Mountains specializing in snow sports, mountain biking, and golf. They approached me in need of a new website, as their existing site was slow, difficult to use, and hard to maintain.
They had a lot of great assets to work with, but their existing site wasn't doing a great job of showcasing the beauty of the resort and surrounding mountain. Furthermore, the branding itself felt dated and in need of a refresh.
Featured Skills
A Modular Design System
Bryce Resort has a lot to offer. With both winter and summer sports, as well as a host of events, recreational activities, and dining opportunities, there was quite a bit of information to account for. Before diving in to the design, I first outlined the site architecture, identifying not just the pages and how they'd be organized, but also identifying the types of content that would live on each page.
That led to the foundation of the design system for this site.
By identifying the various types of content needed throughout the site, I was able to define a set of "building blocks" that would be used on the new site.
Working with my business parter at the time, we started the design process by refreshing the branding while staying true to the original. That led to a new set of web brand guidelines, which we then used as the basis for the mockups of the site. From there, each of the aforementioned blocks was designed and ultimately used to assemble each page. Because Bryce Resort effectively offers experiences, we specifically designed most components to take full advantage of the beautiful visual assets they had to help sell in what you'd get when visiting the resort.
Once designs were approved, I brought the same modular block approach into the development process. By creating reusable blocks of code, I crafted a very efficient system for building out the various pages of the new site. It also allowed me to make it very easy for the Bryce Resort team to build out new pages with robust components without needing to touch a single line of code.
The result was a new site that was leagues ahead of the previous one in every way. It loads quickly, it's easy to discover all that Bryce has to offer, it's simple to update with the seasons, and it showcases the beauty of the resort in a way the old site never could.
We are incredibly pleased with the designs David delivered to us. He has been super easy to work with and is quick to respond when questions arise. He provides detailed options when we request updates and maintains a level of professionalism that is greatly appreciated.
Continual Improvement
Since launch, the team at Bryce Resort has reached out a few times with new feature requests that have come up. Just a few the these new features include:
a voting system that allows members to easily contribute to potential changes or upgrades for the resort
an interactive online membership renewal form that replaced a PDF version that required more time and effort to process
adding an embedded liability form option for the various lessons they offer, streamlining the paperwork process for their admin team
Thanks to the modular nature of the design system and development process, these requests have been easy to handle and were implemented quite efficiently.
I am especially proud of how the Bryce Resort site turned out. Not only does it look significantly more modern and premium, it's also far easier for the team to maintain.
My only real regret with this project is that I haven't visited the resort yet. Being on the other side of the country makes that a bit tricky, but if I ever find myself in Virginia, I'll definitely be stopping by!
