Feldon Valley
Launching the next family attraction in the Cotswolds
New UX for 20,000+ users
Launch Feldon Valley as a Cotswolds destination
“Our experience to date has been excellent, we have had very regular communications and are pleased with the creativity and professionalism shown by Zest.”
— Robert Clive, Partner at 360 Golf
Objectives
The challenge: Re-launch Feldon Valley online with cutting edge design, integrated digital marketing and an ongoing release schedule following our Lean UX methodology.
The plans are ambitious, the reputation is solid, and the potential for this Cotswolds venue is massive. We were approached by Feldon Valley, and their management consultants at 360 Golf, to help them meet their vision and this is the breakdown on how we are doing it.
Feldon Valley is a traditional golf course with a great reputation welcoming over 20,000 golfers each year to its stunningly scenic location. Our primary goal was to assist the Feldon Valley team in launching the next phase of development. The plans had been laid down for luxury dining and secluded lodges and construction was well underway. Feldon Valley knew the future marketing plan had to involve digital and selected Zest as their preferred agency partner. Our team distilled down their brief into three key objectives:
Deliver and upgrade the minimum viable product (website)
Launch The Kitchen and The Lodges in a phased approach
Integrate a paid campaign for awareness and recruitment
Having these objectives laid out clearly allowed our team to deliver the project with confidence.
Strategy
The project required an adaptable release plan. Due to our experience with construction projects we knew that timelines rarely run to the original plan. We had to be adaptable in our planning to allow swift progression of the build.
“The project required an adaptable release plan. Due to our experience with construction projects we knew that timelines rarely run to the original plan. We had to be adaptable in our planning to allow swift progression of the build.”
Laura Potter – Project Manager, Zest Digital
From a development perspective having a staged approach to releases allows the team to build the functions which are most useful for ongoing marketing based on user testing and real-world feedback. This, in turn, provides the team with more scope for developing hypotheses and testing them to deliver a more successful campaign in line with our marginal gains mentality. Constant improvements based on evidence, and not guesswork.
Action
The new Feldon Valley website required a step up in terms of design to build for the future of this impressive development. We developed a style inline with the new brand elements which was clean, clear to use, and balanced white space with inspiring photography.
Photography
From the outset we knew that imagery would be the key to this project. Luckily Feldon Valley is based in an area of outstanding natural beauty so views were not a problem and the photography is as striking as the location. We were able to make use of the on-site drone to emphasis the scale of the property. We designed with imagery in mind for our prototypes. Here are some of the key rules we followed:
Landscape only please!
Keep it local – no stock photography
Use golf photography sparingly
Quality is king – keep it high resolution and sharp
Why did we set up some photography rules? These are the small differences which add up over a project to make it really stand out. Having a set of criteria means we can consistently deliver user interfaces which are a leap forward in terms of design. In the case of Feldon Valley it was important to make sure all images followed the look and feel of the brand, which in turn, provides users with consistency.
Designing for mobile
After conducting a health check of the existing Feldon Valley Golf website we found that a growing percentage of current users were booking their next round of golf via their mobile device. We shifted our strategy to allow more time to be spent on the mobile optimisation of key pages within the user journey.
“We utilised our user journey mapping process to create focused user interactions; providing engaging content to both mobile and desktop users.”
Lloyd Sutton – UX and Front-End Lead, Zest Digital
Key challenge – Recruitment
One key challenge the Feldon Valley team face is attracting talent to its rural location. Our paid marketing experts developed a targeted campaign via Instagram and matched it with a key landing page on the website. The goal was to attract the young jobseekers of Oxfordshire to a new modern and dynamic Feldon Valley.
Results
It’s early days in the life of Feldon Valley Version Two but we are seeing an increasing trend in mobile sessions and an increase in engagement with the careers. We are well on our way to meeting our key KPIs and we are very positive that the new Feldon Valley will benefit from our adaptive approach to digital marketing.
Growth team
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Laura D
Head of Client Services
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Louis L
Head of Operations
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Tim P
Graphic Designer