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A skier carving deep powder at an Ikon Pass destination

Case Study · Ikon Pass · Alterra Mountain Company

One app.
Every mountain.

An engagement that collapsed a portfolio of 50+ disconnected resort apps into a single platform for Alterra Mountain Company. It shipped — and today it's rated 4.7★ across 28,000+ reviews.

View on the App Store ↗Free · iPhone & Apple Watch

Alterra had fifty-plus resort apps. Guests had fifty-plus logins. We had one mandate: make all of it feel like one brand, one account, one mountain.

0.0

App Store rating

0K+

Ratings

0M+

Pass holders

0+

Destinations worldwide

50 → 1

Apps consolidated

iOS + Watch

Shipped on

01

The Problem

A portfolio that scaled in resorts, but fractured in experience.

Alterra Mountain Company had grown into one of the largest networks in skiing — but its digital presence had grown the same way the network did: one resort, one app, at a time. The result was 50+ disconnected products, each with its own account, its own map, its own logic, and its own idea of what the brand felt like.

For a guest skiing three Ikon destinations in a season, that meant three apps, three logins, and zero continuity. For Alterra, it meant the company's most-used guest touchpoint was also its most fragmented — invisible to data, impossible to personalize, and diluting the brand at the exact moment of highest intent.

The fragmented portfolio of legacy resort apps

02

The Bet

Don't redesign fifty apps. Replace them with one.

The strategy wasn't a facelift — it was consolidation. One centralized, B2B2C platform that powers every Alterra owned and partner resort, while letting each destination keep its own character. One account that follows the guest from the parking lot to the summit to the lodge, across 60+ destinations worldwide.

That single decision changed the economics. A unified platform turns a cost center into an asset: data at scale, personalization, promotions, and a brand that finally feels coherent everywhere a guest meets it.

One platform powering every Ikon Pass destination

03

The Principles

Four principles. One bar: get guests to the fun faster.

Most of a guest's relationship with the Ikon Pass brand happens through this interface. Interface loyalty is brand loyalty — so every decision was measured against four principles.

F1

Fun

The interface carries the brand. Bold, playful, and unmistakably Ikon — because interface loyalty is brand loyalty.

F2

Fast

Streamlined flows so fingers don’t freeze. Every screen earns its place; nothing stands between the guest and the mountain.

F3

Functional

Real utility behind every feature. No illusions, no decoration — logical simplicity that just works on a cold chairlift.

F4

Future-forward

Progressive by default. Features that signal where the Ikon Pass is going, not just where skiing has been.

The 4F principles expressed across the Ikon Pass experience

04

The People

Designed around one family — so it works for every skier.

We built the experience around a fictional test family — the Williams. Mandy and John and their three kids, Zayne, Vesper, and Emma, span the full range of skiers and snowboarders: different priorities, different abilities, different reasons to be on the mountain. Their friend Roy — a solo adventure-seeker who maxes every ski day — pressure-tested the edges.

Planning a family trip, tracking performance, navigating a resort you've never visited: every flow was shaped by a real person with a real need, so the product is inclusive and intuitive for every Ikon Pass holder — not just the average one.

The Williams family personas
Ikon Pass guest journey
Ikon Pass interface detail

05

The System

One design system. Sixty-plus mountains. Zero inconsistency.

Scaling across 60+ destinations is a systems problem before it's a screen problem. We built a universal design system with enough rigor to stay cohesive everywhere and enough flex for each resort to keep its own identity — the difference between a platform that scales and a platform that fractures the moment a new destination joins.

The universal Ikon Pass design system
Design system components
Design system tokens and elements
Design system applied across resorts

06

What Shipped

Not a concept deck. A product in 2M+ pockets.

The Ikon Pass app shipped on iPhone and Apple Watch under one line: Connect with Adventure. Four pillars carry the experience.

Manage your family pass profile

Pass profiles and photos for the whole family, days remaining and blackout dates at a glance, favorite destinations and preferences.

Track your stats

Daily vertical, run difficulty, and live altitude. Season totals for days skied and destinations visited. Link Slopes to sync across both apps.

Find your way around

Interactive maps for dining, retail, and rentals. Real-time parking availability and live events at participating destinations.

Shop on the go

Pay for food and drinks in-app and track mountain credits — the wallet that moves with the guest across the network.

Ikon Pass app interface
Ikon Pass app on iPhone

“Their expertise in product strategy and design thinking, combined with their ability to align diverse stakeholders across our organization, has been instrumental in bringing this vision to life.”

Ryan Schwartz — Marketing & Technology Lead, Alterra Mountain Company

The Outcome

Rated 4.7★ by the people who use it every ski day.

Ikon Pass app icon

Ikon Pass

Connect with Adventure

Alterra Mountain Company

0.0

28K+ ratings

0M+

Pass holders

0+

Destinations

View on the App Store ↗

The Engagement

End to end — from foundational research to a shipped, top-rated product.

Phase 01

Research & Strategy

Audited 50+ legacy resort apps, mapped the end-to-end guest journey, and built the product strategy and personas that anchored every decision that followed.

Phase 02

Product & Experience Design

Designed the full experience against the 4F principles — across planning, on-mountain navigation, stats, and in-resort commerce.

Phase 03

A System That Scales

Built the universal design system flexible enough for 60+ destinations to stay themselves while staying cohesive.

Phase 04

Shipped & Scaled

Launched on iPhone and Apple Watch. Live at 4.7★ across 28K+ ratings, in the hands of 2M+ pass holders worldwide.

Client

Alterra Mountain Company

Denver, CO

Engagement

Research → shipped product

Our Roles

User & Market Research

Product Strategy

UX & UI Design

Service Design

Motion Design

Design System

Team

Donny Smith

Nicole Hampton

Joey Kantor

Jenna Law

Chris Kerr

Ryan French

Mat Cooper

Karen Camacho

Matt Wheeler

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