Alpine Valley Getaways
UI/UX Designer / Front End Dev
The Project
Role
UI/UX Designer / Front End Dev
Year
2019
Software Used
Figma, Photoshop, Visual Code, Wordpress
Live Project
LinkAlpine Valley Getaways is a booking and discovery platform for short-term stays in Victoria’s High Country. The goal was to create a site that feels calm, trustworthy, and easy to navigate while supporting real user intent: quickly finding and booking the right property.
This was a full end-to-end project where I owned UX, UI, and front-end development.
The Problem
Most regional accommodation sites fall into one of two traps:
- Overly templated booking layouts that feel generic and hard to trust
- Visually rich sites that sacrifice usability and clarity
For Alpine Valley Getaways, the challenge was to balance both. The site needed to:
- Make browsing properties feel effortless
- Surface key decision-making info quickly
- Build trust without overwhelming the user
- Stay flexible for ongoing content updates
Objectives
- Design a clean, intuitive browsing and booking experience
- Highlight properties without relying on heavy UI chrome
- Reduce friction from landing to enquiry/booking
- Build a scalable front-end that can evolve with the business
- Ensure strong performance across desktop and mobile
Approach
1. Understanding user intent
The core user journey is simple but high-stakes:
- Browse
- Compare
- Decide
- Enquire or book
Users are typically time-poor and goal-driven. They are not exploring for long, they want to quickly validate whether a property fits their needs.
This shaped everything. Less decoration, more clarity.
2. Information hierarchy
I focused heavily on what users actually care about when choosing a stay:
- Location context
- Property imagery
- Key features and amenities
- Availability and booking path
Each page is structured to answer those questions in order, without forcing users to dig.
3. Property-first design
The UI intentionally steps back to let the properties do the work.
- Large, high-quality imagery carries the experience
- Minimal UI framing to avoid clutter
- Clear, consistent card and detail layouts
The goal was to create confidence through presentation rather than noise.
4. Navigation and flow
Navigation is kept simple and predictable:
- Straightforward entry points into property listings
- Clear pathways into individual property pages
- Minimal steps between discovery and enquiry
I avoided complex filtering systems in favour of clarity and speed, based on expected scale and user behaviour.
5. Front-end execution
I built the front-end to support both performance and flexibility:
- Clean, modular structure for easy updates
- Responsive layouts that maintain hierarchy across devices
- Optimised image handling to balance quality and load times
The site is designed so non-technical stakeholders can continue to evolve content without breaking the experience.
Outcome
- A fast, clean browsing experience that prioritises user intent
- Strong visual presentation of properties without overwhelming UI
- A scalable front-end foundation for future growth
- Reduced friction from landing to enquiry
Reflection
This project reinforced how important restraint is in UX. It is easy to over-design booking experiences, especially when trying to differentiate. In reality, users just want clarity, speed, and confidence in their decision.
By focusing on hierarchy, simplicity, and solid front-end execution, the result is a product that feels intentional and easy to use, without needing to shout for attention.
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