Project: 2021 Redesign Project

CMS: WordPress

WCAG Compliance: AA

The Hobby Center is a world-class cultural venue on a mission to expand Houston's reputation as a cultural center of the world.

The Hobby Center provides one of the nation's premier performing arts facilities, fosters accessibility to the performing arts, and promotes arts education with an emphasis on musical theater.

The Hobby Center's digital experience had become dilapidated after struggling with an antiquated version of Joomla, responsivity for mobile visitors had been bolted on retroactively, and the organization's focus on accessibility was not represented in its digital experience creating a disconnect from its mission.

It was time to create a digital experience equal to the amazing physical experience.

Enter Monkee-Boy (stage left).

Visit TheHobbyCenter.org

Goals

Event Management - Easily manage the 100s of varied events that The Hobby Center hosts and allow the patrons to easily explore and filter to quickly find events that most interest them.
Accessibility - Create a more inclusive experience and better represent The Hobby Center's mission of accessible experiences.
Experience - Deliver a compelling digital experience that mirrored the in-person experience Hobby Center patrons enjoy.

Challenges

Content Migration - Moving 100s of events to a new system
Advanced Ticketing System Integrations - The Hobby Center sells tickets through two different ticketing vendors (Tessitura and TicketMaster).
Accessibility - allowing users to navigate custom event calendars and easily finding which performances provide accessibility considerations.

We cannot say enough good things about Aaron and the team and Monkee-Boy. We found ourselves working with them during the pandemic when we were working remotely which presented unique challenges. The process of building a brand new website in and of itself can be onerous and overwhelming and even more so in this new and unexpected environment. Through it all they guided us with professionalism and genuine care for delivery of an end product that met all of our needs, especially in complex issues like ADA compliance and integration of donation and ticketing platforms. Not to mention providing a website that was aesthetically pleasing, matched our branding and featured our performances and venue information in a way that was exciting and informative for consumers. The team always took time to listen and understand what we were trying to accomplish and were always quick to reply to questions or concerns. This continues to be true when we reach out for additional technical and ongoing support of the site today.

-Melissa Limmer Marketing & Development Manager, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

The Hobby Center's Digital Evolution

The Digital Diagnostic

To fully understand The Hobby Center's current challenges and build a plan to meet their short and long-term goals, the Monkee-Boy team worked closely with The Hobby Center through its trusted Digital Diagnostic process. With the marketing team, events team, IT staff, and executive director, the Monkee-Boy team accurately solidified the Hobby Center's target audiences, competition, content types, functionality, and challenges associated with keeping their current site updated. One of the largest discoveries was related to the wide variety of event materials provided and how those different assets would need to all be managed within one elegant system. All of the diagnostic project deliverables were created to solidify the project fundamentals, help the Hobby Center organize & prioritize future features, and organize how all of the new content should be organized and labeled to provide a clean intuitive experience.

Once approved, both teams had a clear view of what the experience needed to be explored and documented during the Digital Strategy phase.

Digital Strategy

During the Digital Strategy phase, the Monkee-Boy build the blueprints and design aesthetics for the new Hobby Center experience. Each step of the process included a deep accessibility review, content modeling & strategy, and technical confirmation of how the Hobby Center's shows would be built, managed and distributed in the new system.

Monkee-Boy also utilized its trusted content governance process to ensure that the site could support any type of Hobby Center event and streamline the collection, loading, and migration of hundreds of pages and performances.

Accessibility 100

39% Increase

Top Google Quality Metrics - Bravo!

Web Accessibility Receives Standing Ovation

The Hobby Center is known for providing an equitable education and entertainment environment. As such, web accessibility considerations were prioritized throughout every part of the redesign process. Inclusive were special icons, calendars, and pages created to intentionally highlight accessibility options for each and every performance. Both manual and automated web accessibility testing were completed to ensure the experience would meet or beat WCAG compliance guidelines. In addition, a full web accessibility statement was created for the site underscoring the Hobby Center's dedication to providing an equitable experience. Once launched the site received a perfect score for Web Accessibility.

Performance 92

86% Increase

SEO 100

69% Increase

Best Practices 98

89% Increase

Is your current digital experience a show stopper?

Maybe its time to give your audience the best seats in your digital house.

If you have a project you'd like to chat about, please let us know. Our unique approach might open the curtains and be the butter on your popcorn. If not we'll do our best to help you on your journey.

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