Red Hawk Casino
UI / UX / Web Development
The Product
I was responsible for delivering a new website for Red Hawk Casino & Resort, as they were in the process of wrapping two major projects - a new hotel as well as an entertainment center. My scope of this project included user journey mapping and site maps, wireframing, prototyping, and the actual web development.
As stewards of the land, it was the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians’ vision that Red Hawk Resort + Casino be created to honor the past and celebrate the future. Located on a beautiful hilltop less than 20 minutes east of Sacramento on Highway 50, Red Hawk is the gamblers oasis.
Client
Red Hawk Casino & Resort
CMO, CTO, Marketing Managers
Live Site
Year
2021
The Research
The stakeholders were looking to update their website to be more user-friendly - with a focus a cleaner layout. While diving into the analytics and communicating with internal staff, we came to the realization the the navigation could use an overall. This is where we began - we used card sorting techniques to create the foundation of the navigation and grouped the different pages into our 3 main categories and areas of focus - Casino, Entertainment, and Dining, while using a utility navigation to support secondary links and actions. From there, we began our wire frames, starting with mobile and desktop header and navigation.
The Design
We wanted to focus on highlighting the 3 main categories that were going to draw people to the Red Hawk Casino & Resort - people visiting the site seamed to be interested in exploring these pages the most, according to analytics. Previously, these areas were not a prevalent on the legacy site, so putting a focus on these categories site-wide was a priority, as this is what is drawing people to visit the casino. An example - rather than focusing on one single casino giveaway with the homepage hero, we open with a statement explaining who we are, followed by a card carousel that highlights several of their offerings - from casino giveaways and restaurant specials, to expansion projects - showing the variety of entertainment options the casino offers.
In terms of overall design, we built several components and a design library that ultimately gave birth to our design system. With the clients managing the page content and development in the future, we wanted to give them pre-designed blocks that were versatile and could be put together to build a page template that looked great and flowed seamlessly. While navigating the site, you'll notice a lot of the same components repurposed to house different content, that ultimately gives a great sense of familiarity and consistency across the entire site's experience.
The Analysis
Coming soon...