Extraordinary Experiences,
Impeccably Napa.
Web Design, Wireframes, Information Architecture
Located in the picturesque downtown area of Yountville, The Estate is a luxurious, exclusive destination situated on a 22-acre property in the famous Napa Valley wine region. The village-within-a-village offers a unique and alluring lifestyle experience.
Design while working with 829 Studios / Design support by Anna Yeo / Strategy by Eve Picard / Production by Gibson Starzynski
The Goal
The Estate is a luxe, new lifestyle destination set on a lush and alluring 22-acre village-within-a-village. The Estate has redesigned Wine Country experience in a delightfully vino-cultured manner accentuated by two luxury hotels with decidedly different personalities – the sinfully good and oh-so-social Hotel Villagio and its sophisticated counterpart, Vintage House, a chic and tranquil sanctuary.
The Estate signed 829 to create a website that would consolidate all their offerings into one online experience while designing a digital presence to gain standing in the luxury space.
Research
Kicking off the project, we sent out Kickoff Questionnaires, an Audience Survey, and a Stakeholder Survey. We also analyzed their Google Analytics Report for their current sites. Responses were limited but we were able to find that as a user, it was hard finding the connection to The Estate between the three hotels in the collection. Hotel Villagio, Vintage House, and The Villa all had different websites.
01 // Highlight the unique Experiences on The Estate, including the spa and hot air balloon tours
02 // Give the Spa at the Estate its own page
03 // Include The Villa under the Stay section of the new information architecture (IA)
04 // House all events under the Private Events dropdown
05 // Highlight the location on the homepage
Wireframing
We started by creating low-fidelity wireframes, which we then refined and developed into high-fidelity versions using Figma. We presented these final wireframes to the client for review.
We prototyped one possible flow a user might take would be from Accommodations Landing Page -> Hotel Villagio Archive -> Hotel Villagio Room Profile -> Book. The user can easily navigate between the hotels and through the hierarchy, as shown in the screenshot below. This flow allows for easy navigation within the system.
Design Discovery
To begin the visual design process, we created a discovery board to discuss the desired style for the new website. Our aim was to use visual inspiration to capture the essence that the client wanted to achieve for their new website.
As a result The client wanted a style that conveyed the following themes:
Passionate
Beautiful
Luxury
Play
Rejuvenation
Place to discover
Visual Design
Leveraging the client's new visual preferences and color scheme we began creating a digital design system and applying it to our wireframes. We developed a color strategy using grey as the main brand color and incorporated the associated colors of Villagio (maroon) and Vintage House (lavender) to differentiate the main areas of The Estate. A classic serif font added elegance to the brand, while a clean sans serif was used in contrast to keep the style feeling modern.
Optimized for mobile
Our goal was to create a compelling experience on all screen sizes, with a particular focus on designing a stunning and seamless experience for mobile devices. This was especially important because we expected a significant portion of our audience to access The Estate's brand and content from their phones. By optimizing the design system for mobile, we aimed to provide an extremely user-friendly experience for our mobile users.
A Revamped Design System
In collaboration with the internal team at The Estate, we transformed their visual language into a cohesive digital design system. We prioritized mobile design and focused on revamping navigation, typography, photography, and web accessibility to create a strong foundation. The resulting component-based design system can easily be applied and scaled across the entire website and all touchpoints.
In March 2020, The Estate signed with 829 Studios for their marketing and website redesign.
In December 2021, The Estate sold as the most expensive hotel property sale to date in the Valley. Press Release