Since we were starting from scratch on the UX/UI design, we began our research with a robust user and competitor analysis. We wanted to understand what drives users to pick up their boards in order to create features that let them immerse themselves in their favorite pastime.

Pain Points

Lacking original content, no community aspect, overly-focused on tourists, outdated events, unreliable weather forecasts

User Goals

Network with active users, view weather forecasts, discover competitions and events, organize trips, stay on top of news and trends

After creating the sitemap, we realized how much ground we had to cover on first glance. A goal-driven information architecture was a must.

Because the site was so large, we took an agile approach with weaving the features into the home page’s content hierarchy. The “skeleton” of the website had to be right before we transitioned to high-fidelity designs.

Once the wireframes were approved by the client, we went to work applying graphics and branding elements to the website. We wanted the look and feel to speak to the culture of surfing.

We created each page’s visuals and started developing the client-approved ones while we designed the remaining ones.