wind creek hospitality

Six properties, one website, one brand

Overview

Wind Creek is the principal gaming and hospitality entity for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. Ten distinct properties across the U.S. and Caribbean provide world-class entertainment, dining, hotel stays, amenities, activities, and, of course, gaming. They approached Archer Malmo to streamline their online experience to bring consistency to their brands while still allowing each individual property to shine with an easy-to-update, scalable design system.

Two months into my tenure at Archer Malmo, I was tasked with leading the design on the agency’s largest website project to date and helped create over 60 templates for Wind Creek’s six main hotel & casino properties.

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Context

Each Wind Creek property site needs to be able to do a lot without overwhelming its users, from hotel booking & restaurant reservation to Rewards management and win/loss tracking, all while promoting and differentiating Wind Creek in a saturated and competitive casino market.

Between the six main properties, there were six different domain names and design systems, leading to brand confusion and a wildly different user experience between Wind Creek’s physical and online presence. To combat this, Wind Creek needed one domain and one design system to rule them all.

“I know we’re moving toward becoming a single brand [...] but, I want to make sure if we do something more corporate-branded we don’t lose the feel of Montgomery.”

— Jessica Milton, Corporate Director of Promotions, Wind Creek

Previous site designs:

Atmore Site

Bethlehem Site

Montgomery Site

Wetumpka Site

Project goals

Create a more meaningful connection between Wind Creek’s physical and digital experiences
Support the various goals of different visitors
Differentiate Wind Creek in a saturated & competitive market — Why Wind Creek?
Promote a unified brand while spotlighting each property’s unique spirit
Encourage physical visits

Users

Wind Creek’s primary target audience is women over 50. Wind Creek Hospitality prides itself on creating a well-deserved escape for women who have invested much of themselves into the success and happiness of those around them but struggle to find time away from their daily routine.

We identified user personas through the following categories: local vs traveler, motivated by central vs incidental amenities, age, and household income.

Insight: guests interested in Wind Creek’s incidental amenities don’t want to sift through the central offerings to find what they need.

Insight: the local/traveler dimension highlights a fundamental fork in the user journey: the need for lodging.

Concepting

The site needs to be a balancing act. The photography should be aspirational & energetic, but also inclusive & not intimidating. Modern, exciting interaction design shouldn’t alienate older, tech-challenged visitors. Bright, new colors should enhance the Wind Creek brand, not overpower it. Visual design should be dynamic & exciting, but also provide space to rest.

Design Solutions

Bright gradients draw the eye diagonally down the page, while the Wind Creek diamond pattern maintains the brand look & feel. Grid-breaking imagery evokes the playfulness and larger-than-life feeling of the physical properties, but doesn’t crowd the other elements. The rounded corners on each container softens and varies the white space, gently delineating content blocks.