Vermont Youth Orchestra Association Website Redesign
Scroll ↓
The challenge
The Vermont Youth Orchestra Association (VYOA), a Vermont-based non-profit that offers music programs for children of all ages, asked us to improve the user experience of their website. They wanted to excite their community and make their website easier to use.
My role
I took on this project with three other UX designers as part of our UX bootcamp. With insights from user research, we redesigned the information architecture, content design, and hierarchy of the VYOA’s website to elevate their online presence to the quality of their in-person programs.
Conducting research
We conducted a competitive analysis of other youth orchestras, arts organizations, and non-profits to develop a deeper understanding of industry standards and user expectations.
We also interviewed VYOA community members like donors, students, and parents to learn more about their experiences with the original website.
User insights
Through these interviews, we discovered that the website’s confusing navigation and scattered information were causing users to struggle with everything from auditioning to finding information about programs and events.
They also expressed that the website lacked visual quality and failed to communicate the full breadth of the VYOA’s offerings.
A new information architecture
To make navigation easier for users, we simplified the information architecture and used language that better matched the industry standards from our competitive analysis.
The conversational tone of categories like “Who We Are” and “Get Involved” was not only common in other non-profits but also brought more humanity to the website.
Reorganizing content
We conducted a thorough content audit of the original website, creating a spreadsheet to weed out redundancies, outdated information, and confusing information hierarchies.
For instance, information about auditions was spread out across 4 pages with lots of text and very few visuals to inspire excitement about joining the orchestras.
To streamline the user journey, we condensed all of the information from the original four audition pages into one wireframe. We also added quotes and photos of students to bring more life to the page and emphasize the communal aspect of the organization.
We repeated this process of gathering and prioritizing the content for each key page of the site, building wireframes that would better fit our users’ needs and tell the VYOA's story.
A consistent content strategy
To help the VYOA communicate their brand clearly, concisely, and consistently across platforms, we developed a simple content strategy .
We created a template spreadsheet to organize information about each music program in a consistent way, making it easier for users to compare between programs and making it easier for the VYOA to describe their programs as a whole.
We also created a design system with fonts, colors, and visual components to ensure consistency in the visual language and to allow the VYOA to expand their website in the future.
