Bearkat Course
bearkatcourse.com, the official golf course website of Sam Houston State University, launched in October 2021 in support of their rebrand from Raven Nest Golf Courses.
bearkatcourse.com, the official golf course website of Sam Houston State University, launched in October 2021 in support of their rebrand from Raven Nest Golf Courses.
While the course was recognized by multiple news outlets for its value, the website was not showing its beauty! It lacked fresh photos and call-to-actions to drive revenue. It also clashed with university brand colors and navigational design trends.
Develop new website to support rebrand from Raven Nest to Bearkat Course and increase conversations by driving users to book tee times online, purchase a membership, plan an event, and register for clinics/workshops.
With lean UX practices, I facilitated project management, research, design, development, and video editing. The Sam Houston State University (SHSU) IT team configured the hosting and domain, while the SHSU golf course manager was responsible for providing feedback and contracting photography services. Lastly, the SHSU Marketing & Communications team filled in content gaps.
Their primary audience is experienced locals, high school students looking to learn, and college students majoring in golf. With the new site design and rebrand, we hoped to also reach more inexperienced college students.
With a handful of golf courses in the area, I reviewed competitor sites to identify design patterns and user expectations. Across these competitors, I noticed:
Simple and short content.
Common call-to-actions including Book a Tee Time " and "Become a Member ".
Paragraphs describing the golf course.
Abundance of course photos.
The Bearkat Course homepage features local design patterns, including a brief description of the course, buttons for booking tee times online, and cinematic video hero of the course.
Content can make or break a project because the design is contingent on the amount of content available. Often, there is not a dedicated resource available to create content. During a content audit, I discovered content buried in PDFs on the old site that could be repurposed for the new site.
For example, “The Holes” section on “The Course” page was created from an old PDF by rendering the holes with Adobe Illustrator and exporting them individually into web files. The course descriptions were already perfect to incorporate into the page.
The design process involves three key steps: sketching to quickly capture ideas, wireframing to test various options in an outline format, and prototyping to gather feedback. To display all 18 holes on a mobile screen without causing endless scrolling, I experimented with different stacking and grouping methods. Guided by Miller’s Law and typical golfing practices, I organized the holes into two groups of nine. Miller’s Law suggests that our working memory can handle up to nine simple items, and golfers often play either the front nine or the back nine for a shorter game.
Experience This Project Firsthand
While I am no longer involved in its upkeep, my original work on this site endures, but it may may change without notice.