Now Be Here

Objectives

Give visibility to women and non-binary artists.
Improve site architecture and navigation to improve access to content.
Reorganize and prioritize transitioning from a blog into an artist directory.
Stengthen SEO foundations to boost search engine traffic and support long-term growth.
Build on SEO foundations to increase search engine traffic and drive future growth.
Ensure for scalability and flexibility to allow for future artists submissions, and evolving content needs.
Update the visual identity to reflect a more artist-focused aesthetic.
Simplify content management workflow for staff or volunteers.

Considerations

Now Be Here is expanding to include non-binary artists so the language used should be inclusive of gender-expansive identities and not just women or appear to be defining non-binary as another woman identity.
The two main user-types are artists looking to join the directory, and non-artists looking for artists. Secondary user types are people looking for resources, and events. Tertiary user type is people looking to support the organization.

Key Words

Community
Supporting
Clear
Purposeful

Phase 1

Information Architecture

The initial step taken was to create a site map of the website in its state to understand the contents of the entire website, identify redundancies and ways to improve. With this site map I organized the information architecture for the website refresh, this direction overall improved the site's navigation and helped us understand how to build the new artist directory.

Phase 2

Wireframing

I created wireframes to map out the structure and user experience of the website. This step was crucial in aligning with the non-profit’s goals, ensuring that content was organized clearly and key actions were easy to access. The wireframes served as a foundation for feedback and iteration, helping to streamline the design process and focus on what mattered most to the NBH and their target audience.

Phase 3

Style

NBH had recently gone through a brand refresh that introduced a minimal and clean aesthetic with bold pops of color and a friendly and accessible typeface. Following with this visual direction we strove to create a digital art gallery look that would help highlight the work of the artists in the directory, and limited the use of colors for call-outs, links and important information on the site.