Kylemore Abbey Website, eCommerce and Ticket system
Kylemore Abbey and Victorian Walled Garden is an iconic visitor attraction in Connemara. It includes the Abbey, the Benedictine Community, the Garden, the Gothic Church, several dining facilities and a shop. Kylemore approached us to redesign and build a new website in 2015. They wanted to unite what had previously been three separate sites into one single website. While the website and shop are now 5 years old, the design has still held its own with new additions such as a new Community section for the Benedictine Order, and UX improvements to the ticketing system.
Client
Kylemore Abbey
Services
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The Objective
Its visitor market is varied and includes foreign and domestic visitors, past pupils, locals, descendants of previous owners and visitors associated with the Benedictine Order. The objective was to give a little taste of Kylemore Abbey, facilitate the easy sale of tickets and present a variety of content in an interesting and user-friendly manner to cater to all these different types of visitors.
Our Approach
Each visitor type has different reasons for visiting the website. For example, local visitors have an interest in the garden blog and news and events, whereas new visitors are interested in how to get there, where to stay and eat and how to buy tickets.
The many different attractions, functions and priorities had to be considered in the design, while still maintaining the desired look and feel to reflect the beauty and peacefulness of the location. A visually-lead approach was adopted by using full-width imagery, responsive galleries and a panelled layout for text and navigation. A short video background is used on the homepage, showing snippets of the assorted range of attractions and activities, while enabling visitors to book tickets at all times through a call-to-action button.
Layout and Navigation
A user-friendly experience is created through the layout and navigation.
The layout of the home page is simple and guides the user to the area that interests them. The icons, flourishes and background patterns reflect the interiors and features of Kylemore Abbey.
The navigation is intrinsically linked to the layout, with imagery in dropdown menus reinforced by panelled links below the main main body content. The main call to action buttons are accessible at all times through a non-intrusive bottom banner which appears when scrolling down and sticks to the bottom of the screen.
The new Booking Engine
This booking engine was created with specific requirements in mind. Kylemore explained to us how they wanted to capturing the expected arrival time of their visitors to the park. To achieve this Armour suggested the addition of ‘time slots’ on the ticket booking process, whereby visits could select from ‘morning’,‘lunch’ and ‘evening’. Capturing this data from the booking engine enabled Kylemore to accurately predict how much staff was needed as various times of the day.
Online Shop
The aim was to promote and allow the purchase of gift products online with a particular focus on Kylemore Abbey handmade products by the Benedictine nuns and Kylemore Abbey branded products. It needed to be part of the main site, easy to search and navigate, and be easily maintained and updated to promote particular products or implement special offers.
