Arts Centre - Website Re-design

As the Arts Centre are currently undergoing a redesign you can no longer view a full working version of this site on my blog. Please contact me if you would like to view the site.

The Brief

This site was produced as part of an academic brief to identify an SME whose site was considered to be poorly designed based on ease of navigation, visual appearance, appropriateness for target audience and client, content and structure. This site was then to be re-designed, including the restructuring of the site map, and built in Adobe Flash.

The Client

The chosen client, a local Arts Centre, was a creative community venue and a group of creative clubs and organisations which use the venue. The existing site in no way reflected the creative output of this community and an opportunity was identified to re-design the website.

The Target Audience

The target audience for this site was the local community, especially those interested in creative past times. It was also identified that appealing to a younger audience would help to promote the Arts Centre to a new generation to help maintain this valuable community centre for years to come.

The Existing Site

Initial impressions of the existing site were that the layout and design were bland and uninviting. The user was faced with both top and side navigation systems which seemed rather unnecessary. Numerous internal links within the main copy on the pages resulted in navigation becoming complicated for the user as it was difficult to tell exactly where the links had taken the user. The site lacked constancy, with content being laid out differently on each page.

Content about groups was also widely spread across the site often with no links between separate pieces of information and with some content being repeated in different sections.

The calendar, which could possibly have been one of the most used sections of the site was exceptionally complicated and could be navigated in two ways which were not clear to the user.

The Re-Design

The re-design was intended to create a more entertaining and creative site which functions better for the user, provides a creative platform for communicating information and creates an approachable online presence to promote the Arts Centre and the groups who use it.

By creating a room which can be explored by the user navigating the site becomes a more interactive and rewarding experience. Replacing the usual tabbed navigation system with a system of images is much more in keeping with the creative nature of the client. Labels which fade in when the user hovers over an item assist understanding of the navigation.

The curtain mechanism which plays in-between each section of the site prevents the change of background images from looking confusing and creates some theatre in the site.

A link for the user to return to the main 'homepage' of the site is present in each section in the top left corner, a conventional 'back button' positioning.

Although each section of the site is different and uses different fonts there is still constancy in the style of the illustration and the colours used. The 'homepage' of the site also brings together the different elements so they become part of a whole scene.

Extra interactivity is added to site for the users entertainment. In the 'Bridge' section the user is able to play solitaire and in the 'Classes' section they are able to move the chalk and draw on the blackboard.

The new calendar provides information much more clearly than the previous site. Although this area of the site is not fully functioning potentially he use of a database or XML CMS system would allow this information be easily updated buy the client and the RSS feed would allow the user to receive regular updates.

The new site provides a much more rewarding and entertaining journey for the user which will hopefully encourage usage and repeat visits.

This work won 'student of the year' at the DADI Awards '08.