Stories Untold Productions
Stories Untold Productions is an award-winning independent theatre production company based in Edinburgh.
For this project, I redesigned their website, brand identity, and functionality. I conducted user research, designed the user experiences and user interface on Figma and developed the website using Squarespace.
Project Overview
The Task
As part of their efforts to reach a wider audience and promote their services and shows effectively, they decided to revamp their website’s User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design. The goal was to create an engaging and visually appealing platform that highlights the essence of their brand and showcases their productions to various target audiences. The design process was be executed using Figma, a collaborative design tool.
The Client
Stories Untold are professionals in the theatre production industry, developing, promoting and consulting on groundbreaking projects that shine a light on the unheard fringes in the creative industries.
“We believe that marginalised voices and subjects shouldn’t be relegated to the fringes. We want to take up space for the unseen, talk about the unspoken and amplify the unheard.”
There is a big focus on making the website accessible and functional to all users, and tailoring the user experience to accommodate different types of visitors, such as potential clients, theatre enthusiasts, and industry professionals.
User Research
In the initial stages of the project, comprehensive user research was conducted to gain valuable insights into the preferences and needs of the target audience, which included clients, theatre enthusiasts, and industry professionals. I conducted a series of in-depth discussions with my client and theatre goers, to understand their motivations, behaviours, and pain points. These research efforts unveiled a strong desire among theatre enthusiasts for a platform that not only showcased diverse and LGBTQ+ friendly shows but also provided a seamless ticket booking experience. Industry professionals emphasised the importance of showcasing reviews and plenty of imagery and video. Additionally, potential clients highlighted their interest in a portfolio showcasing the theatre company’s successful past projects. Insights from this research significantly informed the subsequent UX design, ensuring that the website catered effectively to the unique needs of each user group.
Wireframes and Prototyping
Wireframes and prototypes played a crucial role in turning user research insights into real design ideas. Wireframes acted as a rough sketch, showing how things like show listings, ticket purchases and videos/images would be placed on the site. These low fidelity wireframes helped me to visualise how the website would flow, making it easy for different users – potential clients, theatre fans, and industry professionals – to find what they need. From there, I created interactions and a prototype of how the website and mobile website would function. I used the interactive demos to test and improve how users would navigate and use the site. This step-by-step process helped me to refine the design, making sure that users would have a smooth and engaging experience.
Design and Styles
After plenty of discussions with my client, I then delved into the exciting process of creating a mood board and conducting thorough research on similar competitors. I sought inspiration from a range of sources, gathering images, colours, fonts and styles that I felt resonated with the essence of storytelling and stage magic. Initially I went bold with serif fonts and gradients, however, the client was looking for a more straightforward and easy to read font. The decision to embrace bright and bold colours, particularly shades of pink, blue, and purple, stemmed from a desire to mirror the spirit of the captivating shows produced by Stories Untold. Each hue was carefully chosen to represent the vibrancy, depth, and intrigue inherent in their narratives. The colours are used sparingly across the website, so as not to overshadow the beautiful photography and videos throughout the website.
The Final Product
In summary, I was able to successfully achieve all of my objectives, with a few changes along the way from client consultation, I was able to launch the brand new website in time for the ‘Fringe Festival 2023’. My client has highlighted that traffic has risen tenfold since its launch and customers are already booking tickets through the site as well as enquiring about their services.
Reflecting on this project I was able to deliver a much more intuitive and streamlined website that is fit for purpose and appeals to their target audience effectively. I feel the design reflects the company ethos and is bold, bright and is in-keeping with the productions that ‘Stories Untold’ produce.
