AIA New York and the Center for Architecture
Working at the American Institute of Architect’s New York chapter (AIANY) and its public-facing 501(c)(3), Center for Architecture, I relaunched a suite of aging, decade-old web sites, a massive project that brought a prestigious legacy brand back into relevancy with emerging audiences. The transformation enables us to better serve and engage with not only our membership but also the New York architecture and design community at large. Since relaunching, AIANY has seen 60% growth in unique visits and 130% growth in time spent on site.
Challenge: The previous AIANY site confronted users with an overwhelming navigation system that actually obscured the content of the site. The experience was functionally cluttered, visually unpleasing, and failed to establish a clear voice for the organization.
Approach: We built three sites (aiany.org, calendar.aiany.org, and centerforarchitecture.org) to form an ecosystem that reorganizes, simplifies, and makes more accessible the activities of both organizations. This was a big project. Key enhancements included a long-overdue responsive site that is faster and more visual, easier event registration, online join and renew, a login system for members, and behind-the-scenes Salesforce connectivity that plays to the strength and depth of our databases.
Unify → Simplify → Define
The overall approach was guided by a move to holistically unify, simplify, and define a considered AIANY “ecosystem.” Establishing clear connections, while still allowing individual identities to be expressed, was the goal. We needed to build clearer, systematic relationships between AIANY, the Center for Architecture, its 27 committee sites, Oculus magazine, the Archtober festival, as well as future initiatives. This was the “before” site:
We mapped out an “ecosystem” as follows:
And this was the result, with a top-level navigation defining AIA New York, Center for Architecture, and Calendar:
Center for Architecture
→ The primary challenge with the Center for Architecture site was the moments when content overlapped with AIANY’s audiences, such as grants and competitions and certain fundraising pages.
We also suffered from a lack of visual content. We needed new photography representing the organization’s exhibitions, K-12 design courses, and public programming.
← We conceptualized the overlapping content as “mirror” pages, which were controlled by one CMS (so that the content remained consistent) but appeared on both sites, with links out to either site depending on the organizing body of the specific scholarship, grant, or competition in question.
Of course, we also commissioned a lot of new photography, and scoured the organization’s archives for visuals of past programming.
Calendar
→ The Calendar reflects programming from both organizations, and in that sense is the true hub of activity for both orgs. Navigation and UX was the focus here, with the placement of a right navigation to allow for a calendar widget, and a top navigation that allows for users to view the events by week or by day.
Simplicity and establishing the correct information hierarchy was key, as well as functional responsiveness on across devices and screen sizes. We tested different title lengths and date combinations to allow for the correct spacing.
Phase 2: Firm Directory, Oculus Magazine, Awards Archive, Special Projects, and More
In phase 2 of the project, we launched 7 additional initiatives within aiany.org:
New AIANY Firm Directory, powered by Architizer and open to all AIANY member firms.
Rich, visually-driven Awards Archive that showcases award-winning work by our members and New York architects.
Featured Projects section allowing users to easily browse award-winning work.
Company Directory that clearly lists the professional services of AIANY corporate members.
New, expanded section dedicated to Oculus magazine, featuring select articles online.
Special Projects pages that can finally accommodate the in-depth, constantly evolving work of our members and Committees.
Member Directory powered by our Salesforce CRM, which lets you browse thousands of AIA New York members (Architects, Associates, and Students).
This was an expansive project. I wrote all of the UX copy, established the information architecture, and continue to develop and edit content for the sites as my current full-time employment. I worked closely with For Office Use Only on this redesign project as they were the design consultant we hired at AIA New York.