YETI's Year in Preview is a first-of-its-kind interactive calendar builder for outdoor enthusiasts. It launched to 200M+ impressions and a Webby Award. I was brought in to evolve it: making the experience year-round, globally accessible, and meaningfully more useful for both new and returning users.
Timeline
September – December 2024
Objective
The original experience was built as a seasonal campaign, launching at the beginning of the year and disappearing shortly after. Our goal was to evolve it into a year round platform by introducing stronger filtering, creating a better experience for returning users through persistent state, achieving true parity across desktop and mobile, and meeting international compliance requirements, all while preserving the parts of the experience that were already working well.
My Role
I owned the end-to-end UX design evolution, from stakeholder workshops and journey audits through design explorations, live client iteration sessions, and handoff. I identified gaps in the existing experience, defined the improvement roadmap, and drove alignment across product strategy, visual design, and development.
Impact
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200M+ impressions on the original launch
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9% add-to-calendar rate at launch
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135+ curated events across hunt, fish, surf, snow, climb & more
Stakeholder kickoff +
Journey audit
With an existing user journey already in place, kickoff focused entirely on gaps. I facilitated sessions with YETI stakeholders to surface pain points and define the five priorities that would drive the engagement: shareability, filtering, returning user support, desktop optimization, and international privacy compliance.
We audited the existing user journey to identify points of improvement that could be made to extend the life-span of the complete experience.
One of the key points of improvement was around their calendar system. We needed to evolve it from their current experience and felt strongly aligned in moving away from the previously long-scrolling listicle. I landed on creating a card system that would reflect the various events across the year, mapping the card logic end-to-end, the event hierarchy, visual order, and the year-round entry state, informing the visual design.
Calendar + Card logic system
Multi-user flow design
We designed four distinct flows for users: US-based new user and returning user, International new and returning users, ensuring every touchpoint was addressed without fragmenting the experience. A PIN-based return flow was leveraged to provide lightweight authentication that kept the journey feeling seamless rather than transactional.
Live client iteration
Collaborative review sessions with YETI stakeholders allowed for real-time iteration, keeping alignment cycles moving forward and maintaining momentum with the team as we moved through a compressed 4-month window.
Key Improvements
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Calendar redesign — Replaced endless scroll with a structured monthly view across all 135+ events
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Flexible filter system — We designed a filter experience built for future expansion and improved discovery
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Returning user flow — PIN-based authentication implemented without a full account model
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Desktop parity — Strengthened desktop parity with the mobile-first experience
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Share + Download Hierarchy — Reversed interaction model based on user behavior and research
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Internationalization — Scalable language selector and compliant flows for global users
Built for an always-on and annual user experience.
Awards
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Webby Award — Best Website, Travel
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Fast Company — Innovation by Design, Marketing Innovation
