Client assignments
Idre Himmelfjäll – from a hard-to-navigate website to an inspiring mountain experience
Idre Himmelfjäll is Sweden's newest ski resort and has in a short time grown into a popular destination for families with children, snowmobile riders and mountain enthusiasts. But as the business expanded the existing website began to be a hindrance rather than a help.
Visitors struggled to find the right information, the booking experience created frustration, and the website no longer reflected the feel, quality and experience that guests encounter on site in the mountains. Guest surveys clearly showed that the user experience needed to be improved – both in terms of navigation, mobile use and the path to booking.
At the same time Idre Himmelfjäll was facing a larger commercial shift. The website needed not only to inform – it needed to inspire, build trust and guide the user all the way from dreaming and planning to booking and purchase.
This marked the start of an extensive effort in which we helped Idre Himmelfjäll create a new digital platform focused on user experience, conversion, brand and long‑term scalability.
The assignment
A website that would do more than display information
The goal was clear: create a modern, user-friendly and high-converting website that better reflects Idre Himmelfjäll's offering and position as a family-friendly and growing mountain destination.
But the assignment was about much more than a visual refresh.
The website needed to:
- make it easier to find and book accommodation, lift passes and activities
- create clearer paths from inspiration to booking
- strengthen the brand and build trust with new guests
- inspire more people to invest in plots and mountain properties
- perform better on mobile where most of the traffic came from
- give editors greater freedom to work with content and campaigns
- create a technically stable platform that can evolve over time
The project included analysis, strategy, UX, design, SEO, technical development and integration work. Throughout the project we worked closely with the team at Idre Himmelfjäll in workshops and collaborative work sessions to ensure the solution reflected both the business's goals and the users' needs.
The challenge
When the user experience begins to affect the business
Many people had difficulty understanding the areas, accommodations and booking flows, especially new visitors who were not already familiar with the destination. Guest comments showed, among other things, that users had difficulty:
- finding activities for children
- understanding where the accommodations were located
- getting an overview of available cabins
- navigating between areas
- completing bookings on mobile
At the same time there was an important technical constraint: the existing booking system would remain in place.
The challenge therefore was not to rebuild the entire booking solution – but to optimize the whole path to booking and create a more cohesive user experience around the existing systems.
It quickly became clear that there were several friction points and that there was tremendous potential for improvement.
- Structure and orientation. The existing structure was unnecessarily complicated and made it difficult to quickly get an overview of the offerings and find the right way forward.
- Pages that inform, inspire and are indexable. Many of the individual activities did not exist as pages on the website and could therefore not be found by a user searching on Google.
- Paths to booking. Booking buttons and calls-to-action needed to be clearer to facilitate the next step. The existing booking module would not be rebuilt, which required optimizing the user journey up to the booking.
- Visual expression and experience. Design, layout and user experience needed to be modernized, meet the needs of the target audiences and better reflect the brand and the experience Idre Himmelfjäll wants to convey.
The solution
A digital experience built for both inspiration and conversion
A ski trip starts long before the guest is on the slopes. It starts at home on the couch when you dream about a holiday and time together with the family. That’s why the new website needed to do more than deliver information. It needed to evoke emotions, build trust and at the same time make it easy to take the next step.
Together with Idre Himmelfjäll we created a digital experience where inspiration, usability and business goals come together.
New structure and clearer paths to booking
We rebuilt the entire information architecture and created a clearer navigation with a megamenu that provides a quick overview of the destination's offerings.
Visitors can now more easily find:
- accommodations
- lift passes
- activities
- ski school
- restaurants
- plots
- up-to-date information
Booking widgets and calls-to-action were given a much clearer role throughout the website to reduce friction and help the user move toward booking.
We also created new guides and helpful content that are based on the users' perspective and help visitors plan their trip rather than just consume information.
Design that strengthens the brand
In parallel with the project, the client, together with an external partner, developed an updated visual identity. Our task was to translate the identity into a digital experience that works in practice – on all screen sizes and across the entire customer journey. The color palette and interface draw inspiration from the mountain environment and reinforce the sense of the authentic, nature-focused and family-oriented atmosphere that Idre Himmelfjäll wants to convey.
We further developed the visual expression with:
- a clearer digital design system
- custom-drawn icons and UI details
- improved typography and readability
- clearer contrasts and WCAG compliance
- seasonally adapted content areas
- more inspiring use of imagery
Focus on the mobile experience
Since the majority of traffic came from mobile, strong focus was placed on improving the mobile user experience.
Navigation, structure, CTAs and content were optimized for smaller screens to make it easier to:
- find the right information
- compare accommodations
- navigate between areas
- complete bookings
Technical solution
The project was not just about design and user experience. A large focus was also on creating a technically sustainable platform that can grow with the business.
We developed:
- a modular component structure
- integrations with existing systems
- multi-language support
- improved SEO structure
- better performance and loading times
- technical accessibility adjustments according to WCAG 2.1
Since the booking system would remain in place, we actively worked to reduce friction around the booking flows and create a more coherent experience despite dependencies on external systems.
Seasonal content
We created a flexible setup for seasonally adapted content where editors can easily highlight relevant offers and activities depending on the time of year. This makes the website feel current and alive year-round – both for new and returning visitors.
Clearer product packaging
Accommodations, plots and activities received a more visual and inspiring packaging that makes the offer easier to understand and compare. Content that was previously presented in tables was transformed into clear product cards and more sales-oriented content areas.
Improved SEO and accessibility
The website was developed according to WCAG 2.1 with a focus on clear structure, better readability and accessible navigation. At the same time, the technical SEO structure was improved through semantic code, clearer content hierarchies and SEO-adapted page structures.
Mobile-optimized and ready for international visitors
The new website is built to work seamlessly on all devices – especially on mobile where many users both search for information and book their trip. With support for multiple languages, the platform is also ready to meet both Swedish and international visitors.
The result
The result was a modern and user-friendly website where it's easier to get inspired, find the right information and book. What was previously perceived as messy and hard to navigate has been replaced by a clearer and more coherent experience — both for visitors and editors.
At the same time, Idre Himmelfjäll has gained a platform that better reflects the on-site atmosphere in the mountains: familiar, close to nature and modern — built to evolve alongside the business.
