(Work in Progress)
About Michelle Burgess
Michelle is an artist, originally from New Zealand, currently settled in Avalon, a medieval village in Burgundy region of France.
Michelle and her husband enjoy travel, cultural events and working on their garden, and their activities are frequently shared on her social media.
SITUATION
Through word-of-mouth, Michelle has already had some commission for her paintings but she'd like to have online presence where she could showcase her work and potential clients could find and commission her. Her old domain name was bfmbenchmark.com which didn't indicate she's an artist and her old website was a mashup of her artwork and her freelance benchmark services.
ACTION
Improve usability of the website and make it clear it's an artist's page, showcase her work and enable art commissioning.
Going forwards, Michelle and her husband would like to host artist retreats and workshops at their beautiful hilltop property with terraced gardens, so there's a potential for the promotion and booking of the retreats to be added to the website in the future.
RESULT (Work in progress)
- Domain was changed to reflect the content, new domain is www.michelleart.fr
- All sections of the website are accessible via the navigation bar
- Colours are less electric
- Art is displayed in a grid so it doesn't overwhelm the viewer and also offers a quick scrollable overview
- There's a clear CTA for commissioning
With Michelle's love for arts and already actively documenting their travels, attendance of various events and work on their garden, I have suggested to Michelle to use the blog feature of the website and encourage people to subscribe to the mailing list. It will be good for her SEO, and when they start working on the artists retreat, it will be a good way to start the 'buzz' to promote it.
Wireframe
Website before
Previous version of the website (GIFs seen below), which was a mashup of her artwork and her freelance benchmark services, didn't contain navigation bar and unless you knew the exact URL of the other pages, and it was impossible for people to navigate it and find her other work.
The whole hero section of the page was taken over by the artwork, and not really telling visitors what is the website about and what Michelle offers.
Website after
Navigation is clearly visible, making it easy to browse different galleries. Link to Blog and Contact have been added.
The peacock plume painting taking the spotlight on the home page is Michelle's pride and joy and she wanted it to be big and bold.
Gallery
Home page
Gallery
More photos - mobile view
