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Redesign Project





Clearwater Resort & Casino Website Redesign, Version #22 – 10/10/2023 – 1:44 PM PST


Version #22 – 10/10/2023 – 1:44 PM PST

Clearwater Resort & Casino Website Redesign

Introduction

Clearwater Resort & Casino is an upscale destination that offers a luxurious resort experience and thrilling casino gaming options. This website redesign aims to maximize hotel room rentals, concert ticket sales through Ticketmaster, dining options, and casino gaming experiences. To achieve these goals, WordPress will be used as the Content Management System (CMS) due to its numerous benefits and flexibility.

Clearwater Resort & Casino also has a mobile application (app), hosted by Joingo, who has been acquired thru Sightline. The Joingo app currently replicates the Clearwater WordPress site. Additionally, the Joingo app has several different abilities the website does not. Key among the abilities are personalization factors, such as providing logged in players information about their specific account with Clearwater (points, player level,…), and the ability to Geofence the customer (locate & send messaging and information to specific groups/players, based on the players being in a certain geographic location/locations) if they are logged in, and have location on their mobile device turned on.

Website Redesign Project Goals

  • Increased speed to render sitewide
  • Simplify navigation for the end user
  • Make information that is needed by the consumer easy to find
  • Increase hotel booking conversions
  • Update look and style of website to fit brand
  • Promote casino promotions to increase promotion participation
  • Promote casino concerts, both Event Center, Beach Rock Music & Sports & Lawn Events
  • Increase converting traffic to site through engaging and updated content
  • Simplify contacting casino/make contact materials (Gravity Forms) fit in new look/style through CSS
  • Create a redesigned site that is fast, easy to use, and looks perfect no matter device used to access it
  • Focus on creating logical site conversion paths
  • Site redesign to take accessibility issues into consideration, as the majority of the players that leave money here are 55 and older per internal data analyst, ADA issues including vision & navigation understanding
  • Redesign to ensure all content and navigation choices are mobile friendly

Benefits of Using WordPress as a CMS

WordPress offers several advantages that make it the perfect CMS for Clearwater Resort & Casino’s website:

  • User-Friendly Interface: WordPress provides a user-friendly dashboard, making it easy for staff to manage and update content without technical expertise.
  • Security Updates: WordPress provides for a rapid response on security issues, both with the main core files, and with the addition of added functionality thru plugins.
  • Extensive Plugin Ecosystem: WordPress has a vast collection of plugins that can enhance the website’s functionality, such as ticket booking, forms, event calendars, and more.
  • SEO-Friendly: WordPress is designed with built-in SEO features and supports various plugins, helping the website achieve higher search engine rankings and attract more visitors.
  • Responsive Design: Most WordPress themes are responsive by default, ensuring the website looks and functions great on all devices, from desktops to mobile phones.
  • Customizability: WordPress offers a wide range of themes and templates, providing the flexibility to create a unique and visually appealing website. Additionally, WordPress allows for customization thru CSS.
  • How Many Sites Use WordPress?: Approximately 810 million websites use WordPress. WordPress websites make up an astonishing 43.1% of all websites on the internet. While this isn’t a majority, it’s a larger chunk than most other CMS combined. WordPress has a 64.2% market share among other CMS. Not only is this a majority, but it’s also a larger market share than the rest of the top ten CMS combined.

Elements Of A Redesign (not exhaustive)

List of items involved in redesign

  • Personas – Personas Deux – Personas Study Guide
  • Template Do’s & Dont’s – How to choose a wordpress theme
  • Colors currently in use:
    1. #2C2A29
      ◐◑◒◓◖◗◕
    2. #008EAA
      ◐◑◒◓◖◗◕
    3. #E57200
      ◐◑◒◓◖◗◕
    4. #FFCC00
      ◐◑◒◓◖◗◕
    5. #CAC7A7
      ◐◑◒◓◖◗◕
    6. #98945F
      ◐◑◒◓◖◗◕
    7. #A9C47F
      ◐◑◒◓◖◗◕
  • Imagery Sizes:
    1. Current Image Sizes Are:
      1. 1920×1280 (homepage)
      2. 700×265 (entertainment, promotions, event calendar)
      3. 243×202 (widgets & for artist hotel packages)
  • Home Page Slider
    1. Currently used for Promotions, Concerts
    2. Rethink using full page slider, switch to 700×265 slider home page page load issues
    3. Messaging on items under sliders to be improved
  • Menus
  • Information Architecture
  • SEO
  • Analytics Integration
    1. GA integrated through GTM for analytics tagging site wide
  • Contact Forms
    1. CSS styling to fit data entry areas into look/feel
    2. Messaging update to all forms received responses for clarity/also cross sell potential?
    3. Messaging update to all forms error messages
  • Header
  • Footer
    1. The footer contains information that improves a website’s overall usability.
    2. Common footer content includes: Copyright Notice, Privacy Policy Link, Sitemap, Contact Information, Social Media Icons, Email Sign-up Form
    3. Website footer information at Hubspot
  • On Site Search
    1. Make onsite search more user friendly
    2. Add operators for search refinements
  • Flexible Responsive Design
  • Mobile Ready
  • Printer Friendly CSS
    1. Integrate a style sheet thru CSS that creates a user centric printable version of the site, regardless where they are
  • Room Booking Integration
    1. Hopefully a better integration of the b4Checkin engine
  • ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Issues
  • Optimized IA (information architecture)

Menu Structure

The menu structure will be designed to accommodate different business sales silos and informational silos, ensuring easy navigation for visitors. The following current sections will be created (these may not be in the optimal order for IA, or business, and may need to be changed going forward:

Primary Goals of the Website

  • Location Information and Directions: The website will prominently display the resort’s location information and provide detailed directions for visitors.
  • Displaying Hours: Visitors will find all operating hours, including a roll-up page for casino hours and individual venue hours, making planning easy.
  • Communication Channels: Various forms, including comments, entertainment inquiries, sponsorships & donations, and a general contact form, will facilitate communication with the resort.
  • Promotions and Entertainment: Information on current promotions, their details, schedules, and rules will be readily accessible. Additionally, visitors can explore the entertainment offered and purchase tickets online.
  • Booking a Room and Events: The website will offer visitors the ability to select from different rooms, learn about room options, and easily book a room online. Additionally, arrangements for events such as weddings and meetings will be facilitated.
  • Dining Options and Casino Gaming: Detailed information on available dining venues, their offerings, locations, hours, and a comprehensive overview of casino games, their rules, hours, and locations in the casino will be provided.
  • Amenities and FAQ: The website will showcase the amenities available at Clearwater Resort & Casino, and a comprehensive FAQ section will address common visitor queries.
  • Players Club and Host Info: Details about the Players Club, host information, player cards, available rewards, win/loss statements, and player information updates will be provided.
  • Associated Properties: Visitors will be able to explore Clearwater’s associated properties, including Kiana Lodge, Whitehorse Golf Course, Masi Shop, Suquamish Chevron, Longhouse Texaco, and Port Madison Enterprises.
  • Employment and Sportsbook: Information about employment opportunities and sports events will be accessible on the website.
  • Sponsorships: Clearwater’s sponsorship program details and the application process will be provided for potential sponsors.

Flexible and Responsive Design

The redesigned website will feature a flexible and responsive layout, ensuring optimal user experience across all devices, from desktops to smartphones. The website’s design will adapt seamlessly to various screen sizes, providing an engaging and user-friendly experience. Responsive design allows you to work with relative font sizes (em) rather than absolute ones (pixels), so your text is readable on all devices.

Colors

Work with Leandra & Christopher and other parties to determine, and create a style palette (book of style) for the site, both for fonts, usage, and colors
https://google.github.io/styleguide/htmlcssguide.html
https://elementor.com/blog/web-design-style-guide/
https://elementor.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2020/09/style-guide-template.pdf

Fonts

UXPlanet, WebsiteBuilderExpert, Google Fonts Always start with your brand, Pick fonts with your readers in mind, not just your own personal taste, Make sure your font is readable, Check your font in all its forms – bold, italic, numbers, punctuation, and so on, Explore pairings and hierarchy, use web safe fonts to help your content load faster for readers

Accessibility Issues & ADA Act

Americans with Disabilities Act ensures that the websites and applications designed have features that can help differently abled people have seamless access to them. Along with the general public, the applications developed should also cater to people with disabilities like visual disability, hearing disability, speaking disability, cognitive issues, and any other physical or neurological disabilities.

Use of Scripting/JavaScript

No render blocking Javascript. Load all script resources below the fold and above the tag. This will allow the page to load first and eliminate any render-blocking from JavaScript. If that’s not possible, you may use async or defer attributes to load scripts in the tag. Render Blocking Javascript

Information Architecture

Information architecture (IA) is the practice of structuring and presenting the parts of something — whether that’s a website, mobile app, blog post, book, or brick-and-mortar store — to users so that it’s easy to understand. Well-planned information architecture makes it easy and fun to engage. Whether you’re playing a game on your mobile phone or scrolling a B2B website, it helps you find what you need to reach your goals. https://blog.hubspot.com/website/information-architecture

User-Centered Design Principles

What is the user-centered design process? Again, not every business follows the same exact process of UCD. But, there are typically five general steps that designers adhere to: Research, aligning requirements with the business, building solutions, testing solutions, and iterating on designs. https://blog.hubspot.com/website/user-centered-design

Contact Forms

The redesigned website will implement Gravity Forms contact forms for inbound communications from customers regarding comments, entertainment inquiries, sponsorships, & requests for donations. These forms need to be styled thru CSS to match the look & feel of the website, both in form design and responses to the customers upon submission of the forms.

HTTPS Issues

To ensure a secure browsing experience, the website will implement HTTPS through the use of SSL certificates. This encryption will protect sensitive information, such as personal details, reservations, and payments.

Speed Optimization

Website speed is a crucial factor in user satisfaction and search engine rankings. To address speed issues, we will:

  • Optimize images to reduce loading times without compromising quality.
  • Implement caching mechanisms to reduce server load and improve page load times.
  • Minify CSS and JavaScript files to reduce their size and improve loading speed.
  • Optimize server configurations for improved response times.
  • Minimal use of only necessary plugins, for security & speed issues.

Speed and responsiveness will be measured through GTMetrix, Pingdom, Google PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest and the Google Mobile Website Speed Testing Tool. Further information concerning speed testing may be found here.

CSS Modifiable

The website’s design will be implemented using CSS, allowing for easy modification and maintenance of the layout, colors, and typography. This flexibility will ensure that design changes can be made efficiently while maintaining brand consistency. In addition, the CSS will be well documented and heavily commented to make changes easy for anyone in the future.

Casino Gaming Options

The redesigned website will prominently feature casino gaming options, including slots, table games, and keno. Detailed information on rules, hours, and locations will be provided to assist visitors in planning their gaming experience.

Angeline Spa

A dedicated section will showcase Angeline Spa, featuring information on its specials, amenities, and spa etiquette guidelines to ensure visitors have a relaxing and enjoyable spa experience.

Shopping Local

Clearwater Resort & Casino will encourage visitors to explore local shopping options through a dedicated website sub-section, below Angeline Spa, supporting the local community and enhancing the overall guest experience.

Food Venues

Detailed information on Clearwater’s food venues, including Agate Pass Deli, Seafood Bar, Beach Bru Coffee, Beach Glass Cafe, The Clearwater, and Beach Rock Music & Sports, will be available. Visitors can explore their menu offerings, locations, and hours for a delightful dining experience.

Speed Up a Website

In addition to implementing the speed optimization techniques mentioned above, we will also:

  • Minimize HTTP requests by combining CSS and JavaScript files.
  • Enable compression for text-based resources.
  • Use a content delivery network (CDN) to distribute website assets across multiple servers worldwide for faster loading times.
  • Reduce server response time by optimizing server settings and choosing a reliable hosting provider.

Suggested Plugins

List of suggested plugins for necessary functionality:

  • Gravity Forms for contact forms
  • WP-Optimize to maintain the backend of the site at WordPress level
  • Yoast SEO optimization
  • Limit Login Attempts Reloaded to prevent brute force login attacks
  • Akismet to help prevent contact spam
  • Really Simple SSL to implement https ssl security on the site
  • Search Exclude to allow the ability to have hidden non indexable pages on the site for specific marketing offers
  • The Events Calendar creates an event calendar that is customer facing for the display of entertainment and promotions
  • Simple Sitemap Pro creates a html sitemap for search engine indexing
  • Classic Editor allows you to maintain the site without using the box model

Designed with GTM Analytics In Mind

The redesigned website will be designed with GTM analytics in mind. Every page and every action will need to be accessible thru the GTM using GA, with all conversion events recorded accurately. Use of GTM also allows for easier third party vendor pixels to be added and maintained.

Supported Devices and Browsers to Design For

Google Chrome, Firefox, IE, Microsoft Edge, Android & iOS, both handheld and tablets, no more than two major versions old.

Joingo App

Discussion goes here for what the uses are for the app currently, and what it could be going forward. Also included here will be discussions of look, color, font, sections, backend editing functions…

  • Design App needs to reflect new design that Clearwater gets, as such the app can go thru redesign after the website
  • Colors & Fonts Colors & fonts should emulate/reflect the website.
  • Messaging The app has messaging ability, both to geofenced logged in users, and to specific Patron groups we create.
  • Cost Current cost for the app is I believe ~$5,000 a month, and we are not in anyway utilizing it for that value.
  • Cost Vs Value To truly use the full capabilities of the app we need a concerted effort to educate and cajole and bribe users to install, use, and allow messaging from it, and location data for it. This allows us to us it’s full capabilities.

WordPress Alternatives

Not suggested or endorsed, just listed

  • Shopify
  • Wix
  • Squarespace
  • Webflow
  • Duda
  • Drupal
  • Hubspot
  • Ghost
  • Medium
  • Google Sites
  • Weebly

      • Conclusion

      The website redesign for Clearwater Resort & Casino aims to create an immersive online experience for visitors, providing easy navigation and access to relevant information. With WordPress as the CMS, the website will enjoy user-friendly content management and a wide range of customization options.

      With Joingo as the app provider, we can use the app to market and message efficiently to specific high value patrons, and increase the value of the patron to us, and our value to them.

      Emphasizing a responsive design, HTTPS security, and optimized speed will ensure visitors have an enjoyable and secure browsing experience. By focusing on business sales and informational silos, the redesigned website will effectively maximize hotel room rentals, promotions, ticket sales, dining options, and casino gaming experiences.

      With the integration of Angeline Spa, local shopping information, and detailed food venue descriptions, the website will cater to a wide range of interests, offering a comprehensive and engaging digital presence for Clearwater Resort & Casino.

      Possible Vendors Identified

      Spitballing

      • Should we advertise continuity like Muckleshoot, on the website? The use of images and text describing the continuity I see as a plus
      • Site design/layout possibly in different area using a masonry layout instead of a square layout
      • Possibly a faded repeating small tiled background as a design element? I don’t know how I feel about this one now
      • I like this implementation of the hotel rooms offered, where they are all there side by side, to compare
      • I like this implementation of the hotel packages also on the border, above the rooms
      • Use Eric Meyers HTML reset http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2007/05/01/reset-reloaded/ to verify all devices start out at a common point, and then work from there to bring it to the look desired thru CSS
      • https://huemor.rocks/blog/website-redesign-project-plan/ – THE ULTIMATE WEBSITE REDESIGN PROJECT PLAN

    Font Ideas

    Color Palette Ideas

    Extras

    • As The Buggles once warned us, we can’t rewind—we’ve gone too far.

    Date/Time: