MAKE had the opportunity to design, develop, and dream up new ideas for the launch of Fun Farm’s new website. If there’s one thing we learned while working on our latest project for the Fun Farm Pumpkin Patch, it’s that hard work can and should be fun.
But the truth is: 94% of customers judge a website based on its design. To create a website that would deliver excellent ROI and customer experience, we researched Fun Farm, its competitors, and industry best-practices in-depth and then executed with a top-notch design that was just the cherry on top.
From website redesign quick wins to full HTML rewrites, we created a user-friendly and cohesive website that leaves a lasting impact. Read on to understand MAKE’s website redesign process and how we tackled this project head-on.
Understand the business objectives
Before we begin on a design project, we first take the time to truly learn about the company. Building a website without understanding the business is like trying to get oil from a water spout: it’s not going to work out the way you want it to.
Our entire team (from content to development) took the time to visit the farm (a hard task, we know), and see first-hand what the customer experience is like, both from the children’s perspective and the parents’. Because in order to properly target the parents of Fun Farm’s target market, we had to understand not only their needs and wants but those of their children too!
We also sat down with the client over multiple sessions to understand their goals, the minds of their returning customers, and how a website could best serve to connect those customers and create a new batch who looks forward to visiting the farm year in and year out.
Match brand voice to design style
Website branding plays a crucial role in reflecting the qualities and expertise of a company. There are a wide variety of beautiful websites out there, but some of them do not truly grasp the company and its mission. From header to the footer to 404 pages, every page on Fun Farm’s site reflects the company as a whole through a cohesive brand voice and style.
It only takes 10 seconds for a customer to establish their first impression of a company.
First impressions are crucial when it comes to website design. Immediately customers should feel like they have a grasp on the company and its mission within seconds of arriving at the site.
When we visited the farm, we realized firsthand how many different things there truly are to explore at the facility and we realized the website needed to have that same feeling.
We made it our goal to create an interactive, conversion-oriented digital experience that fully expressed the fun and lively experience patrons have at Fun Farm. Using custom-made interactive graphics and motion animation—two design elements proven to help brands connect with customers—we established a voice and identity that truly mirrored the way we felt during our visit: excited, entertained, and enthusiastic.
And now post-launch, we have increased our average session duration by around 20% as people find more reasons to search the site.
Provide a better user experience
55% of all page views get less than 15 seconds of digital attention.
Websites are scanned and not read, that’s just a fact. The Fun Farm content needed to tell a better story—and tell it much faster. We wanted to make key information easier for visitors to find, like operating hours, seasonal events, ticket prices—the things the majority of site users are looking for right off the bat.
We completely restructured the sitemap from the ground up, using industry best practices like straightforward navigation and content to help guide our way.
Another UX priority was to create a responsive, mobile-friendly design. The old site didn’t work well, or at all, on mobile. And considering a lot of families are on-the-go as they search for local entertainment, mobile usability was a priority focus.
We ensured that every mobile-best practice was in place to create a mobile-friendly, responsive website that parents could easily and effectively access whenever and wherever they went.
Leave a lasting impression
Our ultimate goal was that website visitors are struck with feelings of, well, fun. Whimsical animations, custom graphics, easy-to-read navigation, and content—it should all feel like an inviting website that customers want to return to.
The website should reflect how visitors feel when they visit the farm itself, eliciting brand loyalty from our current customers and inspiring it in potential ones. Leaving a lasting impression is one way to inspire brand loyalty, reminding them why they visited the farm in the first place (and why they want to visit it again).
Loyal customers are worth up to 10x as much as their first purchase, on average.
As a seasonal business with a wide variety of offerings, Fun Farm is hyper-focused on creating an experience that creates repeat customers. Our design was centered around this fact.
In a nutshell: We want visitors to simply smile and remember their last Fun Farm adventure when they pull up the website—the rest will take care of itself.
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Check out Fun Farm’s new and improved website to see our design in action (and plan your next adventure!)
