IX Arts
IX Arts is the organization behind a range of projects including an annual Imaginative Realism art show in Pennsylvania and an online gallery of original artwork.
Project Services
- Multisite
- Information Architecture
- UI/UX
- Logo Identity
- Design & Development
- WordPress
Improved interface design for both the client and the site’s users.
Site navigation was consolidated and renamed to be easier to use. Artists’ work is larger and easier to navigate to. In addition to the two websites designed and built, Metropolis created a third artist portal site that allows artists to upload and maintain their artwork, as well as allowing the client to moderate which website (and show) the artwork will be showcased in. This reduced a huge amount of work needed by IX Arts, and next year’s show will be even easier to curate. The new site works really well on small screens — many users will be interacting with it while at the show.
Working with Mike and the Metropolis team is like having the Easy Button from the old Staples commercial, but for your website. Their end user design chops are so good that we have not yet had to explain the gallery management process to a single artist - once they log in, everything is so intuitive and effective that they just start working with it.
Artists Can Curate Their Gallery by Logging Into the IX Portal
At any point, artists can re-arrange their work and even feature one by simply dragging and dropping them to their preferred order.
Lightning Fast Page Load
With thousands of high-quality images, this AJAX-based infinite scroll keeps the artwork coming without bogging down page load times and eating up bandwidth.
Event Schedule On-the-Go
The show programming doesn’t get finalized until the very end and needs to be easy to maintain by IX Arts. The new design works great on smaller screens, where users can navigate by day or just scroll to see everything. Events click to reveal details.
Ticket Buying Integration
A custom Gravity Form with conditional logic allows users to buy multiple tickets during checkout. The payment is processed, and users’ information is passed into Mailchimp if they opt into a newsletter list.
During the project’s initial start, we created wireframe templates for the site’s main pages to help the client and us better understand how we tend to approach the content hierarchy and tell the story for each page. We deliberately build colorless wireframes to keep the collaborative efforts on content only and proceed with the design templates once approved.
Home Wireframe
Main Show Wireframe
Artist Profile Wireframe
The Results
With artists entering their work when they register, the show site can go live months earlier which will allow more time for ticket sales. It now works beautifully on mobile phones and the architecture is much more customizable for future functionality.
Awards & Recognition
- Awwwards – Honorable Mention
- Best CSS – Design Nominee
- Communicator Awards – Distinction Award
- CSS Design Awards – Design Nominee
- CSS Light – Featured Site of the Day
- Design Nominee – Site of the Day
- Graphic Design USA – American Graphic Design Award
- Indigo Design Award – Bronze Winner
- Muse Creative Awards – Platinum Winner
- W3 Awards – Gold Winner
Interested in starting a project?
Tell us a little (or a lot) about what you’re looking for. We can answer any questions you have about our process, timing, and recommended next steps.
