The Ritz Carlton Meets Davy Crocket
A Family Farm turned Luxury Inn
“…Amita was inspirational, creative, motivating and fun to work with. We ended up with a fantastic product and we will always be grateful for her expertise. She was a delight to work with and helped us think and dream beyond our expectations.”
— Mary Frappier / Owner
Client Story:
StarHill Farms Grew Iteratively.
“Let’s share this little slice of heaven with others.”
This became the mantra and mission of my work with the Frappier family and their ranch, StarHill Farms.
Together, I codified their vision, researched customer interest and marketing options, then designed and implemented strategies to get the farm staffed, organized, and marketed to the public.
Let’s take a closer look at two main goals I accomplished with the farm:
Phase 1: Opening for Lodging
Phase 2: Opening For Weddings
Phase 1: Opening The Cabins To The Public
Year: 2013
Creating the Physical and Digital Experience
Challenge: StarHill wanted to open to the public but had it’s concerns. Would the public treat the property well? Would it be a positive experience?
Solution: Take the process in iterative steps. My solution involved making the decision to get StarHill Farms online but maintain complete control of bookings in a manageable, scalable way.
I helped the farm make choices on staffing and business systems. I trained staff on online tools like WordPress, Google Ads (Adwords at the time) and Resnexus online booking software.
Web Development + Online Booking Services + Project Management + Business Development + Marketing + Coaching + Art Direction + Writing + Graphic Design
WordPress Website
This was the first iteration of the StarHill Farms Website. It had a simple user flow toward bookings. Provided Art Direction to obtain romantic photos and wrote the copy for the site and other marketing materials.
Responsive Design
I designed this site to be responsive and work across devices and browser types. This was more of a challenge in 2012, with a lot of manual image uploads at various sizing. However, it was a major win for StarHill’s online presence.
Online Bookings
Seamlessly integrated the Resnexus software platform, providing complete control over bookings, with options to integrate more booking channels, like Airbnb, as the business grew.
Branding + Art Direction
Commissioned artwork that correlated to the stylesheet I designed for the site. Think: “Sharing our Piece of Texas,” “Romantic” and “Davy Crockett meets the Ritz Carlton..”
Artwork is utilized for promotional materials
User Research
getting valuable feedback
To understand if StarHill really wanted to open to the public, I suggested implementing a user-testing scenario.
I asked the owner to send personal messages to friends, and friends-of-friends, asking them to visit or get other acquaintances visit the farm for feedback.
This was a long process of booking, waiting, and getting feedback. But it was game changing. I received valuable written and verbal feedback that let us design all the marketing material and internal staffing procedures for the farm. Feedback covered topics like: amenities, pricing, nearby attractions, food options, staffing concerns, farm activities, and cleaning concerns. More importantly, the Frappiers enjoyed the process and decided move forward and share the farm to the public.
Phase 2: Usability Revamp adding Weddings & Events
Year: 2017
A New market and a New Design
Challenge: To Maintain the Laid-Back Feeling of the Farm while offering Weddings, something known to be stress-inducing
Solution: Design for a User Persona who wants a relaxed, laid-back wedding experience.
New Website + Photography and Art Direction + Branding + Social Media + Content Management + Digital Advertising + Business Development + Staff Training + Project Management
This phase of my work with StarHill consisted of updated them into a new site with better usability and functionality. These are the main actions I took:
Design and test a new website with better user flows both lodging and weddings
Create new internal and external content targeted to user perona: “Joy.” (Includes Contracts, Pricing Sheets, ETC.) Example Pricing Sheet.
Train Staff to participate in Social Media postings and Blog Posts
Deliver Digital Advertising, via Google Ads , Facebook/Instagram Ads and consistent Social Media campaigns via Buffer
Improve SEO strategy, incorporating weddings on popular wedding listing sites
Train staff with Asana Project Management Tools to keep everyone organized and creating content regularly
Regularly check in with staff about guests to adjust offerings and strategy
Make room for new offerings and product like Shopify, as the creators on the farm, like to create new things
User-Centered Design:
A glance into the process
Understand + Research + Ideate + Design + Implement + Evaluate + Adjust
User Persona
Continuing the iterative process, weddings began in small steps. I started by gathering information about two wedding that happened by request at the farm in the past year. Compiling what the staff liked and the brides exhibited I concluded that we were targeting a laid-back bride who didn’t need too much help and would want a smaller wedding.
The photo seen here, shows our version of “Joy” taken at the farm with one of our horses. I directed a photo shoot (@garyblakephotography) with a local couple to get marketing photos we can use everywhere.
We added new staff and connected with vendors fitting the user needs to create a vendor list.
60 second comparison video
User Testing Demo
The staff was struggling with WordPress so I suggested a Squarespace solution. I designed a sample site and both and tested it with both staff and people in our target market. The below video shows a demo of the A/B testing I did. Squarespace was the “winner”.
The A/B Testing showed that more users preferred the Squarespace version of the site. This includes both staff members accessing the site and potential customers viewing the site. View the current site , done in Squarespace.
Site Mapping & Wireframing
Designing for User Flow
Content Creation: User Flow and Site Maps help make sense of the reservation process and how people visit the site.
Wireframing
Depending on the project, I’ll sketch on paper and/or on Photoshop to determine things like image sizes and blocking for text. StarHill Farms has beautiful photography and the “above the fold” of the site highlights it nicely.
Content Creation & Social Media
Being Social
*****
Keeping the Voice Consistent
There’s the guests’ voice, the farmers’ voice, the wedding planners’ voice, and the owners’ voice. My objectives here were to make Starhill’s Team comfortable posting, to interact with our followers in a way consistent with the brand, and to create effective advertising campaigns.
Branding + Social Media Advertising + Content Management + Content Creation + PR + Project Management + Writing + Editing + Graphic Design + Team Leadership + Google Analytics + Google Ads
Social Media Advertising
Beyond encouraging organic posting, I work with a wide range of tools like Buffer, Canva, SparkPost and Photoshop to create social media advertising campaigns on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. The image to the left shows the results from a facebook campaign.
Developing a Presence
Content Examples
Graphic Design + Writing + Project Management + Editing + Digital Design + Advertising + PhotographyView fullsizePhotography and Writing SampleView fullsizeAirbnb Promo PostView fullsizeWedding Wire Promo PostView fullsizeBlog + Emergency Response + DesignView fullsizeArtwork and Writing ExampleView fullsizeGraphic Design: Print PromotionView fullsizePinterest Blog GraphicView fullsizeFarming Blog ArtworkView fullsizeIn House Coffee Label Design (Print)View fullsizeAlternative Label Design (Print)View fullsizeWine Label DesignView fullsizeSoap Crafting and Label DesignView fullsizePoetryView fullsizeInstagram StoryView fullsizeEnvelope Artwork DesignView fullsizePinterest PromotionView fullsizeBloggingView fullsizeTravel Blog
Email Marketing
Conduct the design, distribution and analytics of StarHill Farms email campaigns using Mailchimp
Online Store
Designed the artwork and dropshipping capabilities for this StarHill’s Online Store.
Product Design & Shopify Online Ecommerce Solution
I have a background in crafting and applied this to helping the farm create products like soaps for it’s cabins. I also designed new graphics for items like tote bags and wine labels. Many of these items are still in design and testing, but the Shopify store is up and running and ready for whatever new goodness awaits.
In Conclusion
*****
The Farm grew iteratively. My design process was intentional, and reflected back to the mission of the farm: to share.
I utilized design thinking and incorporated UX techniques. I lead the team of StarHill with project management tools like Asana, and taught them how to use it on Apple devices and a Google Chromebook. The iterative process, consisting of user testing and the resulting adjustments made from the results, made a major impact, leading to the high, 5-star ratings on all booking and wedding listing sites.
Bookings for lodging have increased steadily over the years while Weddings and events begin to gain more traction. Graphic and product design efforts have resulted in a Shopify store with my graphic design expertise.
I’ve loved working with StarHill over the years and am honored to have be a part of their journey.Visit StarHill Farms.com,Joy’s favorite site.