Choctaw Casinos

Choctaw Casinos & Resorts offers an escape from the humdrum with an opportunity to win big, see exciting live shows, or relax poolside with a favorite cocktail. With an assist from us, their website now trumpets that come-hither call too.

The Choctaw Nation-owned gaming/hospitality brand features seven main casino locations (three of which are resort properties) and 15 satellite “Casino Too!” travel plazas throughout Oklahoma. Diversions abound, from table games and slots to major entertainment acts, spacious swimming pools to distinctive restaurants, even a spa and cinema in Durant.

The trouble was, the old website wasn’t as exciting or intuitive for visitors as it could have been. Because of an outdated content management system (CMS) and underpowered infrastructure, the site was slow-moving and cumbersome to maintain for the client, and the site’s static character didn’t reflect the pizzazz delivered by Choctaw’s new TV and social campaigns.

Ease of use was an issue as well. In some cases, a site visitor needed three or four clicks from the homepage to access information for a particular casino, event, or amenity. Lack of an easily found map or other references meant locations might not be quickly understood by the uninitiated.

Choctaw knew a redesigned site was in order. Enter Click Here Labs. Armed with key analytic insights, we brought fresh eyes to the site architecture to better align content with user expectations.

The data revealed some interesting tidbits, like three-quarters of the traffic was new users. And with 70% of visitors accessing the site via a mobile device, it was imperative to have the site optimized, responsive, and easily accessible for repeat users. We also planned to integrate their vibrant social media channels as well as make the site compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements.

The analytics fortified our overall rearchitecting plan, which was to give priority to two groups – new or infrequent guests and heavy gamers – and from that, a homepage centered on planning a visit and showcasing upcoming live entertainment and promotions. Another important measure was to better categorize the Choctaw properties for visitors so they could more easily find a location.

Once done, the homepage took care of that and more.

Now a redesigned homepage with a video introduction visually kick-starts the excitement that Choctaw brings. It conveys the immediate motion and sense of glamour of casino magic on the page. By introducing scrolling and sticky navigation, all critical details for a road trip are finally in one place. This includes simple ways to book a stay or filter events and promotions for a specific casino as well as an interactive map pinpointing all Choctaw properties and revealing address and phone details.

Helpful links to the Rewards Club and for booking a meeting are also easily structured for users seeking information on those programs. The interior pages are artfully redesigned to deliver more visual excitement and useful planning nuggets.

From the ever-present main navigation, users can easily browse each casino property to find casino games, entertainment, dining, directions, and other things to do. This architecture design not only consolidated the offerings at each casino, but it also helped eliminate about half the pages from the old site. This reduction in unnecessary clicking back and forth helps users easily find and discover details for each property.

The site was rebuilt using WordPress and WP Engine’s Enterprise Amazon Web Services environment. The new CMS allows the client to easily add loads of content, including a heavy rotation of concert and gaming specials for the various locations. Beyond that, the site is much faster and able to effortlessly handle any surge in visitor traffic.

On the development side, the custom module functionality and menu system proved to be the trickiest back-end parts of the project.

The modules, both for general and property templates, had to have different renderings and data structures based on page type. It took some technical expertise to optimize because of the shared-module desktop/mobile dynamic and beefy Retina display assets.

Since the navigational menus are dynamic to the selected casino property and content during scrolling, customization was required to create active navigation highlight states to keep the user informed of where they are on the site content as they scroll the longer pages.

The degree of difficulty to tie things together was amplified by the various scrolling, stackable, and sticky features necessitated by the new design as well as adapting this solution for a similar value on the mobile experience. Even with some late requests for structure changes, we were able to complete the menu puzzle on time.

When we were hired to redesign the new Choctaw Casinos & Resorts website, Click Here Labs went all-in to ensure an exciting and elevated website experience that guaranteed users a sure bet they’re going to win big.