Hospitality has always been important to the Mescalero Apache people, who opened their lands to other Apache bands in the 19th century and have been welcoming others ever since. At the AAA Four Diamond-rated Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino in south-central New Mexico, they extended that same welcoming spirit to create the premier mountain resort in the state. With extensive guest facilities and lots of onsite offerings, they needed detailed resort wayfinding that not only helps visitors get where they’re going, but expands and enhances the guest experience.
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Surrounded by stunning views, the massive complex and grounds host a hotel, a comprehensive spa, six dining facilities, three bars and lounges (including a tap house with 70 tap beers), an 18-hole golf course ranked 23rd by Golf Digest, a comedy club, and an entertainment venue that hosts a variety of top acts and also doubles as a convention center. There are the grounds, but also lots of activities, including fishing and lake excursions, big game hunting, horse treks, bicycle rentals, hiking trails and a 7000-foot zipline. And then there’s the casino, which offers Vegas-style gambling for any game, taste or budget.
The Visix Creative Services team worked closely with the Inn to create a rich interactive wayfinding design that would make combing through all of the offerings easy and fun for guests. The resort wayfinding project is available on touchscreens throughout the venue, with the home screen featuring a photo slideshow and touch prompt to attract attention and encourage interaction.
The design is bright and inviting with custom branding and colors. Guest can choose from four main areas: floor maps, directory, property map and promotions, and all of the main interactive elements are available by either touching them on screen, or using bottom buttons that are wheelchair accessible.
Floor maps are simple to navigate with a color-coding system for different areas of the property, and icons for common destinations like restrooms and vending are onscreen at all times. Other interactive icons offer high-quality pictures of hotel rooms, menus for dining destinations and even videos for several of the restaurants. Dedicated buttons also let guests view all photos, videos and menus for a floor in one place. Navigating between floor maps for the eight levels can be done by touching floor icons, or by using ADA-compliant arrows at the bottom of the screen.
Or maybe a visitor prefers a list. The directory lists all onsite options with the category (hotel, restaurant or amenity), floor it’s on, and a button to map a red point-to-point directional path on the floor map that leads them to their destination. An SMS option lets guests send their route directly to a mobile phone, so they can take turn-by-turn directions with them. Visitors can also filter the directory by category to see only those items that interest them.
The property map zooms further out to show the main locations in the primary building, but also the golf course, where to go boating and fishing, the hunting lodge, horseback riding and even clay shooting. Again, videos and menus for several popular attractions can be accessed by tapping icons.
And finally, the button labeled “Promotions” displays a slideshow of digital posters for current and upcoming events. This includes concerts, stand up comedy shows, health and wellness fairs, acrobatics and magic performances, casino tournaments, contests and raffles, dining specials and more. Navigational buttons are included so visitors can stop the carousel to get specific information about a particular event. The upper left corner of the screen always displays the current date and time as well, which makes planning much easier.
That sure seems like a lot of information, but by using nested layers throughout the resort wayfinding project, guests never feel overwhelmed or lost when looking for information. Like everything else at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino, a spirit of welcome, hospitality and the visitor experience come first.