about the project
When I first joined the board of directors of RiverArts in 2017, I knew that one of my top priorities would be to revamp their website that was outdated and complicated to use. I was passionate about helping RiverArts improve their web presence that would allow them to provide the community with timely information about programs and events that they produce.
RiverArts is a widely regarded nonprofit that brings a variety of programs, events, and classes and camps to the community, but their website was hard to navigate and they have trouble keeping it up to date. There was little to no hierarchy of information, and pages were being created on an ad-hoc basis. I knew that having the potential for the website to scale with the organization was very important from the beginning.
I used Axure to illustrate the information architecture and new sitemap
goals
Improve the public face of RiverArts
Provide a more simple and organized navigation structure
Make it easy to find education and camp information, and registration forms
Include a full calendar view of all events with options to search and filter by categories
Provide the community with timely news and events
I surveyed and interviewed about 30 members of the community including artists, parents, and current and past board members. I then drafted a sitemap in Axure to show the updated navigation structure and hierarchy of information, and created wireframes to outline content.
I designed all major pages and created a variety of page types (templates) to make updating content easier for maintenance. Throughout this process I presented each phase to the board of RiverArts.
process
I used Axure to create detailed wireframes for each page type
RiverArts is a small organization with very limited resources. Some of the more intricate ideas, like creating a member directory, will have to be pushed to phase two.
challenges & launch
