2017
Bringing the “Most Magical Place on Earth” to life through digital.
We were given a great challenge: how might we create an extensible platform that could be used for all of Disney Parks’ brand homepages with a low level of dev effort. So, not just Disney World and Disneyland, but also properties like Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney, Aulani Resort, Disney Vacation Club, and more. We also had dozens of executive stakeholders at Disney who wanted their messages to be prominent on the various homepages.
We needed a system that was flexible and could easily be themed for the various destinations, but they also all needed to feel related. As a Lead Interaction Designer, I led the design and UX for the project, and also was key in prototyping the new innovative video functionality that we rolled out – unseen previously on other websites, but since replicated.
My Role as Principal Designer
In addition to the hard skills below, much of my job includes using soft skills to rally partners and teams toward a creative vision. To that end, I managed a team of designers, negotiated with countless stakeholders, and conducted numerous successful executive presentations to bring this project to life.
Wireframes
Hundreds of sketches and wireframes were created for the Homepage project. A robust collaboration among the design team, dozens of partners, and several executive stakeholder took place. Bi-weekly design reviews (with senior executives & SVPs) were part of the process and my role included presenting our team’s work in an engaging and compelling manner.
Desktop Experience
We needed to create a flexible framework that would scale and flex for unique destinations and experiences within the Disney Parks ecosystem. This design is now live for more than 8 destinations and counting.
Prototype
I built dozens of prototypes in HTML and CSS based on the Bootstrap framework. I chose this approach because I wanted to show my development partners exactly how the site should respond and flex across breakpoints. In other instances, I’ll use Figma, Principle, InVision, After Effects, or even Keynote to convey an interaction idea.
Mobile Experience
Although Desktop was presented first here, the site was designed with a Mobile-first approach. Optimizing for mobile was key to our strategy as over 60% of users were on their phones. Creating an immersive mobile layout was imperative.
Results
We conducted qualitative analysis through User Research (focus group sessions, surveys, and UserTesting.com) and qualitative analysis via Adobe Analytics 3 months post-launch.
-16%
Bounce Rate
3 months post-launch, our new homepage bounce rate went down by over 16%. This held steady for the duration of measurement, which was over a year.
27%
Satisfaction Increase
Based on user testing data and post-launch survey analysis, our satisfaction scores for the homepage increased by 27% from the prior year.
48%
Engagement Increase
Now, users explored the homepage more than ever. This increase extended throughout the website journey if a user viewed the homepage.
$4.2M
Revenue Increase
In the first 3 months post-launch, revenue increased across the board and the project paid for itself. The team continued to iterate post-launch.
