Howth
A redesign of visithowth.ie promoting Howth as an outdoor destination with great food and accomondation.
Role:
UX Designer, UI Designer, Researcher
Year:
2021
Overview
Visithowth.ie is a tourism website run and organised by a co-op of the local hospitality & retail businesses in Howth who work to promote Howth, its restaurants, bars, shops and attractions to visitors and locals alike and work with various organisations to improve the visitor experience.
The problem
In general the website doesn’t succeed in capturing the full essence of Howth village and the peninsula, making for an overall disappointing user experience. The area is being vastly undersold, especially with regards to its outdoor assets, to an audience of tourists, both international and local, limiting the business potential of the area.
The Opportunity
To explore ways in which Howth could be rebranded and how refocusing the user experience of the website could allow for better business opportunities for the locality.
The process
Lean UX: Think, Make, Check
Think
Audit of current site
The current website is confusing, both in how to navigate and also about what the priority of communication is. Website is called visithowth yet of 50% of site is currently serving as a directory for locals, outdated info regarding Christmas and covid community help. Visitor info is hidden in the pink highlighted section, the 4th item in priority with regards top navigation.
There is beautiful content and imagery on their Instagram account which is not reflected on the website. The Instagram account is also linked from the website but the Instagram account has the wrong website on its bio!
Problem Statement
Visithowth.ie is a website set up by Howth business and residents to promote the area to visitors international and local. We observed that the website is hiding great content and not fully promoting the outdoors and food culture bountiful in Howth. There is a focus on seasonal information over year long local businesses and attractions which is limiting the business potential for the area, having a negative effect. How me we improve the digital experience to promote Howth’s full potential as an outdoor destination at the edge of Dublin with great food!
Business assumptions
1. I believe my customers have a need to find out easily about outdoor trail routes in Howth and good options of places to eat.
2. These needs can be solved with an easy to follow digital map experience and easy to obtain info about restaurant and take away food.
3. My initial customers are locals and Ireland based tourists (As long as international travel is restricted due to COVID-19.
4. The #1 value a customer wants to get out of my service is clarity.
5. The customer can also will also get the benefit of excitement, ease of use and enjoyment.
6. I will acquire the majority of my customers through the website or other tourism websites and google.
7. I will make money by encouraging more local business and attractions to link in with the website.
8. My primary competition in the market will be private tourism operators who operated guided walks around the peninsula.
9. We will beat them due to leveraging Howth as a free outdoors playgrounds whilst promoting the local restaurants and take away businesses.
10. My biggest product risk is confusion and lack of clarity about walking routes.
11. We will solve this through an easy to follow map which is intuitive to follow.
12. What other assumptions do we have that, if proven false, will cause our business to fail? If people get lost or disinterested on the route or are confused about what’s on offer in Howth.
User assumptions
1. Who is the user? Tourists, initially locals and Ireland based but more international as widespread tourism and international travel fully reopens.
2. Where does our product fit in his work or life? When a tourist is visiting or a local is looking for an exciting adventure at the end of the DART line in Dublin. Escaping the city whilst still being within touch of it.
3. What problems does our product solve? Truly promoting Howth’s potential as an outdoor destination with a great food scene.
4. When and how is our product used? Before the trip while researching the area for hiking and on the hike to guide.
5. What features are important? Map, point of interests, attractions and restaurant and take away places to eat from.
6. How should our product look and behave? It should be clear, easy to follow and use, attractive, exciting and fully reflective of how great Howth is as an area. Show Howth in its best light!
Feature prioritisation
Initial hypothesis
We believe promoting and highlighting Howth’s outdoor potential and great food culture fully will increase Howth’s attractiveness to potential visitors.
We will know this is true when market feedback from interview and surveys is more positive and there is an increased interest to explore Howth.
Initial sub hypotheses
We believe more detailed and easy to use maps on the website will increase visitors eagerness to explore Howth.
We will know this is true from surveys and potential visitor feedback show a desire to visit.
We believe easy to follow food options we make potential visitors well informed and excited to visit Howth.
We will know this is true from feedback about awareness of Howth’s food culture from surveys.
We believe an attractive and exciting homepage with easy to obtain info truly selling Howth will increase visitors engagement.
We will know this is true when visitors navigate past homepage to an attractions with ease and great satisfaction.
Surveys and interviews
Research was undertaken into the types of visitors of Howth as well as the feeling of local and Dublin residents and how they feel the area is being promoted. One set of data collected came from a senior manager in Fingal tourism, who conducted a survey in 2018 with almost 8,000 participants. Another survey was conducted through two facebook groups, one of which was a Howth facebook group with 3,000 members and an Expats in Dublin facebook group with almost 31,000 members. The second survey had a total response of 84 participants and was conducted to gather insights into how people living and frequent visitors to Howth felt the area was being promoted and what improvement they felt could be made. I also conducted an Interview with Shane Doherty, a local Howth tour guide to gain further insights.
Survey findings
1. The most frequent visitor to Howth was International, spread predominantly across USA, Germany, France and Spain.
2. The walking trails and landscape were overwhelmingly considered Howth’s best attractions.
3. Very little known about sea activities and accomondation in the area.
4. Two main groups, millenial couples and older groups of four.
5. Average spend less than €50.
6. Most visitors travel in from city centre.
Interview findings
I interviewed Shane Doherty, a Howth local who conducts a range of tours throughout Howth Peninsula. Shane is also a member of the Howth Biosphere Network.
Shane reconfirmed in his experience the findings of the surveys. He claims that Howth has a lot of ‘high volume, low value tourism’ were the locality is busy with a lot of tourists coming to Howth but spending little or no money and returning to city afterwards.
Reflection on findings
Based on research obtained through surveys and interviews my initial assumptions that the walking trails needed to be promoted more and a priority were unfounded.
Because of this research I decided the best solution was to focus on a digital platform which highlighted bookable outdoor activities, promoted food options and accomondation more to the two principle demographics.
Demographic 1 was the millennial couple 18-35, international looking for outdoor adventure and nature with food options and currently spending little or no money in Howth. Demographic 2 was older, in a group of 4 and interested in food and accommodation options.
Revised sub hypothesis
We believe a website which centers around the perfect 24 hours in howth with outdoor adventure, great food options and well promoted accommodation would encourage a millennial couple want to plan and invest more in a trip to howth.
We will know this is true with user feedback and increased desire to want to go to and stay in Howth.
We believe pushing accommodation and food options will increase the appeal of spending more time in Howth.
We will know this is true with user feedback.
Persona 1
Persona 2
Competitive Analysis
West Coast Tasmania is a beautiful website that really promotes and brands place. Makes you excited and want to visit. Howth website should feel the same. Also great example of place branding and strong use of colour.
Wild Atlantic Way is the benchmark for how to realign and promote the outdoors and nature potential in an area. The website is easy to use and follow. The map is particularly great with a very easy to follow route which shows points of interest.
Make
Experience Map
Task flow diagram
Information architecture
Visual research
I conducted visual research into outdoor websites and other brands that have simple identities, striking colour palettes and great use of imagery.
Paper Prototyping - Desktop
Although through research, there are potential design opportunities emerging I wanted to get down on paper how the structure of website might work and potential areas for special attention.
Design development
In preparation for MVP I started to develop a strong brand for Howth. I played with typography to create logo which mimics the shape of the hill while also communicating a loud call (A call to action, a call out to Howth). A colour palette was also developed, taking its cues from colours found in the Howth landscape.
MVP - Desktop
Next I designed a Minimum Viable Product which acted as a sounding board for both the user flow and information architecture as well as the initial brand development. Z patterns and a number of heuristics and design patterns were employed at this stage.
High Fidelity Prototype - Desktop
After proof of concept was established in the MVP I further developed the prototype into a High Fidelity Prototype for user testing. Incorporating imagery and colour, the user experience was coming together nicely through the user interface.
Check
User testing - desktop
I engaged user testing of the desktop with one person local to Howth to see if the site was user friendly to gather any feedback or advice from a local’s perspective.
I conducted 4 tests:
1. Find Kayaking and book
2. Find Póg cafe and book
3. Find King Sitric and book
4. Find the perfect 24 hours in Howth
In general the tests were completed successfully so it gave me confidence going forward. User liked the branding and suggested maybe including more foraging and biodiversity.
Iteration based on feedback
1 Changed the font on the buttons to sentence case as it was causing legibility issues.
2. Added icons and additional info into the tiles on the main categories as it would help a user made decisions easier.
3. Adding subtitles and condensed content on a listing page as it was feeling a little sparse.
Paper prototyping - mobile
Next I wanted to wanted to test on paper how the desktop version might translate into mobile.
User testing - mobile
I conducted A/B testing to assess both the usability of the mobile version of website and also to assess whether a hamburger menu or a tab menu at the bottom would be best.
2 Users (Male 32 Irish Ex Pat Female 30, American) did the hamburger test while the other 2 (Female 26, Howth Local, Male, 64 local).
I conducted 5 tests:
1. Find Kayaking and book
2. Find Póg cafe and book
3. Find King Sitric and book
4. Find the perfect 24 hours in Howth
5. Find out the weather for Howth
Both versions where quite successful, however the tab version performed slightly better so will be the direction moving forward.
Most users struggled slightly finding the 24 hours in Howth article with most going to what to know versus at the top of the home page.
User 4 suggested a home button in the tab version and Users 1 and 2 felt that the OWTH wording was too confusing and would potentially cause an issue when people whose first language isn’t English.
Final iterations based on feedback
1. Added home button to tab.
2. Shortened titles of menu items so icons could be spaced out equally.
3. Debated about removing text in menu but decided to keep in as most helpful.
4. Removed OWTH from call to action.
5. Checked colours and adjust to make enough contrast and that all text meets accessibility standards.
6. Incorporated the feedback regarding copywriting back into desktop version
Reflection and Summary
Embarking on this project helped develop my UX skills, my coding skills as well as build on my branding and visual design skills, rebranding place and rebranding an area close to my heart.
With further development, further testing there is the potential to pitch it local Howth boards, Fingal County Council or Failte Ireland to develop and realise. Working in collaboration with these boards will further strengthen the user journey and ensure that user needs are continuously being met.