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Cairngorms Winter Companion App
Date: 2025
Role: UX/UI Designer
Project type: Case study
This case study was undertaken with the goal of creating a sleek, professional, and accessible companion app for people visiting the Cairngorm Mountains for their snow slopes. Accessibility was kept at the forefront of the design, ensuring the app could be used effectively even by those on the slopes wearing thick gloves.
Design philosophy
Centred around middle-aged skiers and snowboarders who want to access information about the slopes before they visit, hire equipment, and utilise features that will enhance their visit during their time on site. Aiming for a sophisticated design that would deliver a convenient, user-friendly app that will enhance the experience of visitors coming to the Cairngorm snow slopes.
The key focus is to ensure the app can be used comfortably by site visitors wearing thick snow gloves.
A darker colour palette was adopted with a minimalistic colour palette, elements maintained sharp edges, screen space was respected help to deliver a premium experience that the middle-aged audience would resonate with.
The focus with the login process is to make it as straightforward to use as possible, and providing options for users to log into their existing account, create a new account on the app, or continue to the app as a guest. Guests can still use the app, but would need to create an account or log in to hire equipment, book tickets, view friends on the map, and save their slope records.
Interactive elements have been made as sufficiently sized in the event that users don't use the "Remember me" option, and need to log into the app while wearing their snow gloves on-site.
Users can use the back button to return to the Welcome page to select an alternative option, and the tertiary CTA's found at the bottom of each page offers alternatives to log in or sign up if they are unsure on the method they have selected.
The home page focuses on providing users with the most useful information for their planned trip at a glance.
The hero banner can communicate the most important news for informational and sales purposes, which is followed by breakdowns on the different conditions of the slopes, such as the current and upcoming weather, temperature, wind speed, and past snowfall. This gives users the information they need to make a more informed choice towards visiting the slopes, all from the home page.
The weather, snowfall, and latest news elements can all be scrolled horizontally to view more information at a glance.
The menu page was given a stylistic appearance that blends accessibility and sophisticated design, containing only the most important features to the user: their account, a means to buy tickets, a means to hire equipment, and access to the site cameras to see how conditions fare in person.
A map function tailored to the Cairngorms slope track was essential for this app, and can be found on a number of other Ski and Snowboarding companion apps on the market.
In keeping with the darker theme, the tracks are brightly coloured to make them stand out, and are colour coded to match their difficulty.
Screen space, especially when considering the use of this page most frequently by visitors on-site at the mountains, is paramount. To respect this, the CTA's on the map have been sized at a 74px width to allow for comfortable touch range while wearing gloves, and the menus follow a similar approach to accommodate this.
Each section of the app was thoughtfully structured to guide users through a smooth and intuitive shopping journey.
Users can select a slope by tapping one on the map, or by selecting on in the Slopes list menu. This will focus the slope centrally on the map and highlight it for clarity.
Collapsable menus and the draggable menu card allows users to control how much screen space they need.
To enhance the experience on-site, a Friend system was implemented - also seen on rival apps. This allows for users to more easily meet up on the slopes, compare slope records, and add some friendly competition to their visit. Users who are friends can view the location of each other on the map.
Signals can help warn users of potential hazards before they visit an area on the slope. Users can only leave signals if they are on-site. These can be moderated by site staff. By navigating to the Signals menu, users can select a signal and place it nearby their current location on the map.
The design system was crafted to ensure that standards and consistency were met throughout the creation process.
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