The Client
The Orlando Science Center is a private science museum located in Orlando, Florida. We teamed up with their marketing department and redesigned the OSC website to offer visitors accessible information on their exciting exhibits, experiences, and events taking place throughout the year.
The Mission
Create a user-friendly online experience that promotes access to the science center and furthers their mission of inspiring science learning for life. We understood their website needed more than just a good design -- it needed a strong framework to communicate essential information to visitors in a straightforward, actionable style.
The Results
Visitors to the new OSC.org have found exhibits, events, programs, and activities at their fingertips, particularly on the updated mobile-first experience. The site has facilitated increased speed and search traffic for the organization, and OSC staff can are able to save time and effort with the new content management system built around their needs.
Strategy
-survey OSC members, volunteers, and staff about website requirements
-develop a user flow that for multiple age group and audiences
-simplify menu navigation with clear, action-oriented language
-design a user-friendly website for both admins and visitors
interactive home page
For osc.org, the home page is an essential portal for visitors seeking information about their upcoming visit to the science center.
Knowing that the slider on the previous website was a pivotal communication platform for staff members in different departments, we designed a prominent carousel in the call-to-action area. This has allowed for a more diverse cross-section of messaging in this highly visible area.
The home page also includes a sortable, category-based section called "Who's Coming to the Science Center?" that allows visitors to explore programs by age demographic.
plan your visit
After reviewing the OSC website analytics, one of the most popular pages on the previous site was an 'About' page with hours and planning details.
For the new site, we incorporated a new page called "Plan Your Visit", a centralized resource for visitors. In addition to today's hours (pulled from the central events calendar), the page includes admission pricing, transportation options, food options, experiences, and etiquette.
mobile-first layout
Consideration for responsive design was extremely important as OSC receives an ever-increasing amount of traffic from mobile devices. We took a mobile first approach when creating the initial design and the build of the website, with a specific goal to increase the loading speed for mobile web traffic.
events calendar
The event page was redesigned to streamline the process for families planning a trip to the science center.
By creating a drop down menu that allows visitors to select their preferred event type, visitors can quickly see which events are the most appropriate for their visit.
Alternatively, if they prefer, visitors can browse the entire upcoming OSC calendar and select the ideal date for their upcoming visit.
Social-friendly development
The website is designed to take full advantage of Open Graph tags so each social media share has large brilliant images. The proper implementation of Open Graph tags also helps with search engine optimization (SEO) since each of the major search engines analyze these tags.
