Redesigning the Ann Arbor Art Center's Website, from the Ground Up

Since it was established in 1909, the Art Center has been a mainstay of art culture in the city of Ann Arbor. Their offerings range from regularly rotating art exhibitions (free and open to the public), to events and classes for artists of all ages. Their site is the hub for class and event information, as well as a jumping-off point for their third-party class registration system, fundraising platform and online shop.

The A2AC staff had limited technical expertise and resources to devote to site maintenance. Over time, their WordPress installation became increasingly overwhelming for both staff and site visitors. Additionally, while half of their site traffic originated from mobile browsers, it was only minimally optimized for mobile viewing.

From the outset, the team wanted to shine a spotlight on the artwork of the Art Center. With this guiding principle, the site design was intended to be neutral and understated, without sacrificing brand identity and design polish.

Additionally, due to limited technical knowledge and resources on the client's side, the team decided as much content as possible ought to be CMS driven and templated—sacrificing visual flair for greater consistency and ease of maintanence.

After thoroughly familiarizing myself with the existing site structure, I created low-fidelity wireframes to present my recommended changes to FinalFinal™. After validating these, I refined them into medium-fidelity wireframes, and produced both sitemap and navigation structure documentation to ensure all the proposed changes were thoroughly explored.

After reviewing existing brand assets, I began building out a design system for web, which would co-evolve with the high-fidelity mockups as I identified, recycled and refined design patterns.

High-fidelity site mockups presented a clear picture of how the design system would streamline site maintenance and improve visual consistency. Key pages received both a desktop and mobile breakpoint treatment to ensure responsiveness.

During our presentation of the high-fidelity design, the clients shared a lot of positive feedback. They’re excited to present a brand-new, more visitor-friendly web experience to the Ann Arbor community. The development team has praised the deliverables for their clarity and thoroughness, and the site build is proceeding smoothly. It’s currently scheduled to launch in late 2026. More to come!