Best Arts Website

The launch of the Canadian Opera Company's new brand in early 2011 provided the perfect opportunity to refresh the website by incorporating strategic improvements designed to further drive online subscriptions.

The improvements, implemented in March 2011, are rooted in an understanding of the digital behaviours of the COC's audience and the key performance indicators built into the site in 2009.

Through the collection of more than two years of transactional data and behavioural insights from Delvinia's AskingCanadians online research community, we were able to determine which features of the site were performing well.

We then designed a new homepage which reflects the new brand and includes technical improvements designed to enhance the overall user experience.

The site was enhanced to cater to the COC's two primary audiences, time-starved customers who are looking for information about tickets and the performance calendar, and those who are more socially-inclined and looking for highly-engaging elements that offer a rich user experience.

For the time-starved customers, we included prominent tabs on the homepage, including those labelled The Operas, At the COC, and Concerts & Events, that make it easy for users to access information about specific operas, tickets, and subscriptions.

For the COC's more socially-inclined customers, we added two tabs, labelled Discover More and Blogs, which direct users to rich content, including features like the e-newsletter, quizzes, and the COC timeline.

The new site also integrates more content-rich imagery, designed to match the confidence of the new brand while illustrating the essence of operatic theatre.

Contributors:

Account Manager:	Adam Froman
Project Manager:	Katy Pedersen
Director, User Experience:	Sara Durning
Information Architect:	Andrea Reck
Creative Director:	Grace Marquez
Art Director:	Ricardo Queiroz
Development:	Agility Web Systems

DELVINIA

Location: Canada