ArtPath Website

Research The Needs

Like every product, the needs of those using the platform were among the first set of priorities. With a tight deadline to produce an MVP that was ready within 5 days to launch, I quickly audited the existing pages to identify what would add the most value to the page. Together with the program director, we identified that offering a new way for donors to contribute funds, sponsors to identify and purchase sponsorships, artists to showcase their submissions, and location mapping thru Google's API to lead patrons to instalment locations were among the MVP priorities for this project.

Tools for the job

One of the major concerns with the organizations existing platform was the overwhelming interface for their content staff manage.  For 20 artists, this meant 20 unique pages, including the home page and sponsorship/donor pages. We had 5 days to turn around the whole site, which meant a more robust Content Management System (CSM) was needed. With my experience in hosting on the Webflow platform, this felt more than suitable to build the site's 4 main templates within this time period while their content team provided full attention to a curated CSV I presented to them. This CSV would provide me all the details about the artist, their submission, their media, and mapping to their instalment locations.

Challenges

Of the few challenges faced, one of the large was incorporating the mapping system into Google Map's API. I wanted a system that allowed for their content team to provide only the GPS coordinates of each site. Something they already had due to having to provide these locations to utility companies for digging permissions in a public space. I managed to solve the solution using Google's custom mapping software that not only accepted the coordinates, but also let me map the URL directly to these coordinates. Thus providing the perfect solution to linking map locations throughout the site.

Another challenge to solve was the constant rotation of data that the content team would have to keep up with on the path to their go-live date. As the opening day for the event approaches, changes in the 3 primary stories would result in the team having to routinely login and update event images, dates, videos, and messaging for even the most minimal update. I solve this by writing custom logic for each peace of content and tying it into smaller collections of ArtPath "events". Where as the content that has been imputed by the team will change itself conditionally based on the time leading up to the event, the day of the event, and following the event without having to manually make changes on daily or weekly basis.

Success

Following the launch of the site, through Google Analytics, open lines of feedback and communication, we have had more interaction than any previous year. Including out of state, and overseas. Feedback from the art community has been positive as we've have collected over 300 responses from Social Media, and in-person interviews to identify gaps and rewards.

Next Steps

With the success metrics in hand, and this pilot MVP now launched, there are plans to continue this momentum, and the client has opted to have me perform an entire overhaul the organizations website www.lansingartgallery.org for its own migration to Webflow, and a rebrand of their entire company's image, tone, and digital presence. This is planned for completion in August of 2023.