01: The CLient

Pikes Peak Region Attractions

While Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Region have welcomed families since “purple mountain majesty” was coined, Pikes Peak Region Attractions has been helping visitors find all the coolest things to do since 1973.

With millennials spending more on experiences than things – Pikes Peak Region Attractions saw an influx of young-adults-without-kids visiting the region. It was time for their brand to grow up, just a little.

The site needed a new information hierarchy system – which is really just a pinkies up term for organizing content to say “the right thing, at the right time, in the right way.” No pressure, right? With a library full of new, compelling images and an audience eager to engage, we wanted to take a story-driven approach for this redesign.

02: Our Approach

Creating the modern west

We needed to find a balance between: rugged but not serious, playful but not childish, modern but not sterile. We called this style “modern west” and made it our true North to finding inspiration from other travel game-changers like Sunset Magazine and Visit San Francisco.

The Visual Inventory is a time for us to pull inspiration from other websites, both inside and outside of the client’s industry, that will inspire the design of the new site.

In the Element Exploration above, you can see how ragged edges and colorful patterns add interest to an otherwise grid-like approach. The blend of custom icons and vivid images create a sense of visual playfulness and surprise-and-delight.

The turning point

Building your vacation

Who wants to plan their own trip when they can let the local experts do it? Not us! And based on the popularity of the Itineraries section we know a lot of vacationers feel the same way. The itineraries are hand-selected by PPRA staff, based on visitors’ interests and number of travel companions and include day-by-day suggestions to keep you exploring. Visitors can explore featured attractions further, purchase tickets and even download their favorite itineraries for super-easy vacationing in the Pikes Peak Region!

03: The result

Custom, flexible and easy to update

This entire site – including the Itineraries pages – take advantage of Cornerstone’s front-end editor. Our team developed custom Cornerstone blocks where the PPRA team can drag and drop attractions, add restaurant callouts and customize the length of each day without worrying about a single semi colon or end bracket. The site gives their team enough flexibility to customize each itinerary with enough structure to maintain a consistent look and feel across the site.

The PPRA site has less than a 4% bounce rate. Unheard of? Not anymore.
We used the itineraries section of the new PPRA site to test if visitors would be interested in bundling attraction tickets. Sure enough, the most-asked question visitors ask is if they can purchase an entire itinerary!
Quarterly strategy meetings with PPRA to review goals, analytics and outline ongoing enhancements
Celebrating more than 45 years and representing 25 of the top attractions, PPRA has grown into one of the best travel resources for the area

The Rangers get that the brand and the website are living things, constantly growing and evolving, and they’re there to support every step. They’ve won multiple awards for the work they’ve done for PPRA, and yet it’s never the Design Rangers’ show. They are the magic working behind the scenes to make PPRA grow, and they make it all so easy on me.

– PK KNICKERBOCKER, Executive Director at Pikes Peak Region Attractions

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