toronto biennial of art
The Toronto Biennial of Art is a contemporary visual arts event that showcases 72 days of exhibitions, talks and performances to inspire conversation, bring communities together and celebrate artists on a local, national and international level. As the first event of its kind, they needed a digital experience created from scratch to represent the Biennial, galvanize the city and guide visitors through every facet of the event.
Our team at Art & Science had three months to build a website for the first ever Toronto Biennial in time for their launch in September. I led discovery and UX, and worked with clients and our internal teams to communicate strategy, experience design and functionality.research and strategy
I led a discovery workshop with the client that included executives, marketing contributors and curators to better understand festival goals, anticipated challenges and how we are measuring success. I created a UX blueprint to document a shared vision for the project.
Our strategy was to treat the website as both a product and a service. The Biennial strives to make contemporary art available to everyone. From a product perspective, to echo their standard for inclusion, we designed the website to act as a digital reflection of the event, bringing the in-person experience to a remote audience. To encompass the 72 days of the Biennial, all artworks and artists are catalogued with sharp visuals alongside the rich details of their work. We identified a service requirement for the site—spanning 72 days and the entire region of Toronto, we wanted the site to function as a tool to guide visitors through the event and all its layers.
information architecture
I created a site map that illustrated the structure of information and content for the proposed site, taking into consideration different sections such as creative partnerships, visitor information, exhibition sites and artist biographies. I then used that as a guide to create an intuitive navigation for desktop and mobile, keeping in mind the need to find information quickly and easily.
features and functionalities