GO APE
Go Ape is a startup treetop adventure company that quickly grew to become one of the countryās leading zip line experiences with 16 locations nationwide. The challenge: increase booking rates and reduce call volume. I lead a full redesign of the website, identified gaps and pain points in the customer experience, and redesigned the purchase flow to improve conversion rates and reduce call volume.
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My role in this project was leading the research, problem identification, content strategy and UX design.
Business Goals
Increase Conversion Rates
Decrease Call Center Call Volume
Outcomes
20% Increase in Mobile Conversions
18% Decrease in Call Volume
40% Increase in Engagement (pages per visit and average length of visit)
Increases in CSAT and NPS
Project Team
Lead (me)
Project Manager
Product Manager
3-4 developers
Agency (Branding)
Research & Ideation
The Problem Space
We started by doing customer interviews and focus groups to better understand the needs and goals of our audience. In total, we interviewed about 60 customers. To supplement this qualitative data, we also sent email surveys to 1,000 recent customers. These insights allowed us to build out comprehensive personas, journey maps, psychographic reports and identify major pain points.
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Takeaways
Some of the key insights we learned in our research:
Moms ruled the wallet and made the decisions for their family outings or vacations
In their discovery phase, new customers had a very vague idea what a "treetop adventure" experience was, and if it was going to be appropriate or safe for their families
The second insight had immediate implications: this was one of the biggest deterrents to purchasing a ticket.
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We needed to find a way to get in front of this concern. We focused in on our problem: How might we show new customers (targeting Moms) that the activity was fun and safe for their family?
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On the business side, the priority was to reduce call volume. We needed to consider this goal in our ideation as well. By researching call center data, we uncovered the top reasons for calls:
What is a treetop adventure?
Where is it located (I need directions)?
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I facilitated ideation workshops to come up with creative solutions to solve our challenge. Some of our solutions:
Full screen video on the home page
Online chat to answer any questions in the decision making process
A new content strategy geared toward "newbies"
Video series showcasing safety policies and records
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Steps in process:
1-on-1 Interviews & Focus Groups
Email Surveys
Research Synthesis (Affinity Mapping)
Personas, User Journeys, Psychographic Reports
Ideation Workshop
Content Strategy
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Wireframing & Testing
With a clear problem statement, we created our lo-fi prototypes and tested them with target users (Moms). Our goal was to validate if the experience was was more easily understood and clearer than previously described, gauge levels of concern around satefy, and to confirm an increase in likelihood to book.
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In the testing process, we identified another opportunity to improve efficiency in the booking process: consolidating the booking steps from several pages down to a single page. We iterated on our designs and created wireframes and designs for an improved experience.
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Takeaways
Ultimately, our approach to visually clarifying the activity, alleviating concerns about safety and consolidating the booking steps lead to:
20% increase in mobile conversions
18% decrease in call center call volume
40% increase in engagement
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Steps in process:
Prototyping
User Testing
Wireframing
Visual Designs
Visual Design
The final design makes use of full screen photography and video to visually describe what a treetop adventure is and highlights a globally persistent booking call-to-action.
