CASE STUDY
Trailblaze Slopes began as a branding project centered around a fictional winter recreation park in West Yellowstone, Montana. The original materials established a bold visual identity and playful tone, but left room to explore how that identity could translate into a full digital experience.
This project focuses on extending that brand into a responsive website that not only reflects the energy of the park, but also supports real user needs such as planning a trip, understanding activities, and booking experiences. The goal was to create a site that feels engaging without sacrificing clarity and balancing expressive visuals with practical functionality.
gathering content
Rather than starting with layout or visuals, the process began with content development. This included defining the park’s offerings, writing page copy, and establishing a consistent voice across the site.
The challenge was to maintain the brand’s bold, playful tone while avoiding repetition and ensuring the content remained informative. Each section was written with a specific purpose in mind whether that be introducing the park, guiding users through activities, or supporting decision-making with details like pricing and logistics.
This content first approach helped shape the structure of the site and ensured that design decisions were grounded in real information rather than placeholders.
Site map
The sitemap was developed to organize a wide range of content into a structure that feels intuitive to navigate. The primary focus was grouping related information while keeping key actions like booking and viewing activities easily accessible.
The site is divided into major sections such as Activities, Tickets, and Events. Supporting pages like The Powder Post (blog page) and About add depth without distracting from core user goals.
This structure allows users to either explore broadly or move quickly toward specific tasks, depending on their intent.
Persona & User Scenario
To guide decision-making, a primary user persona was developed:
Alex Carter, a 32-year-old remote professional planning a winter getaway. Alex is detail-oriented, prefers to research ahead of time, and wants to book activities in advance to avoid uncertainty.
Scenario:
Before visiting the site, Alex is comparing destinations and looking for clear information about activities, pricing, and overall experience. After landing on the Trailblaze Slopes website, they explore available options, check conditions, and build a plan that includes passes and a snowmobiling tour.
The site is designed to support this journey by:
Wireframes
The wireframe phase translated the sitemap and content into a visual structure. Layout decisions focused on hierarchy, readability, and flow between sections.
Key considerations included leading with a strong hero section to establish the website’s tone, structuring content in digestible sections to avoid overwhelming users, and creating clear transitions between informational and action driven areas.
At this stage, the emphasis was on both balancing visual styling and ensuring that users could move through the site logically and without confusion.
Prototype
The prototype built in reference to one of the wireframes (chosen to move forward in class critique) introduced visual design elements such as typography, color, and imagery based on the moodboard above as well. The goal was to reflect the brand’s bold identity while maintaining usability.
Interactive elements such as navigation, hover states, and calls to action were incorporated to simulate how users would engage with the site. This phase helped refine pacing, ensuring that the experience felt dynamic without becoming distracting.
It also allowed for adjustments to spacing, content density, and visual balance before development in the next phase.
Final site
The final website was developed in WordPress using Elementor, allowing for flexibility in layout and content management.
The finished site combines strong visual elements inspired by the original branding, and clear, structured content that supports functional and interactive components such as activity breakdowns.
Special attention was given to maintaining consistency across pages while allowing each section to feel distinct. The result is a site that communicates both the energy of the park and the practical details users need to plan their visit.
conclusion
This project demonstrates how a visual brand can be expanded into a fully responsive digital experience. By starting with content and grounding design decisions in user needs, the final product balances personality with usability. The process highlighted the importance of writing with intention before designing and maintaining variety within a consistent voice. Trailblaze Slopes ultimately serves as an example of how thoughtful content, clear structure, and cohesive design can work together to create an engaging and functional website.
