My role
Design Lead
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority
Client
Noble Studios
Agency
Homepage redesign, UX/UI, interaction design, animation,
digital storytelling
Scope
The Brief
Visit Lake Tahoe had a new brand positioning, "Awe and Then Some," and needed a homepage that delivered on it. It wasn't enough to say Tahoe is breathtaking. Visitors had to feel it the moment they arrived.
The project had three challenges:
Design a homepage that captures the "Awe and Then Some" positioning
Build a continuous, scroll-driven visual experience that works on every screen size, device and connection speed
Balance an ambitious creative vision with technical limits, content that changes by season and stakeholder concerns
the approach
Scrolling along the shoreline.
Nearly two-thirds of travelers use their phones to plan and book trips, and that share grows every year. So we designed for small screens first. We ran user testing during the design phase to make sure the navigation and layouts felt natural on a phone.
Rethinking the layout for mobile.
A panoramic scroll doesn't simply shrink to fit a phone, so we rebuilt the mobile experience as a series of scrollable cards. The story still flows in order, and the interactive elements are designed separately for touch and for desktop.
Animating at the right moments.
Headlines appear as the visitor scrolls, timed to their movement. Map pins animate in at key points along the route, and custom motion design sets the pace of the story and guides the eye.
Custom-building every interaction.
Every animation, carousel and overlay was built from scratch rather than from templates. That kept the whole experience consistent with the brand's tone and gave us control over performance on slower connections.
Planning for the seasons.
We created custom content blocks and a mega menu so the bureau's team can grow the site themselves. The combination of storytelling and SEO-minded content makes the site easy to find and easy to use.
Results
+17%
lodging referrals
+7%
referrals to all partners
+1.5%
engagement rate
+11%
engagement time
+6%
of visitors scrolling at least 75% of the way down the page
The outcome
The new homepage was recognized by stakeholders and the local community. It was presented at city board meetings and industry conferences. The homepage performed well enough that the team shifted its optimization work to deeper sections of the site.