Accessible connections through art
As the leading art gallery in Guelph / Ontario AGG’s vmission is to advance the arts globally as a leader in exceptional, impactful, and inclusive programming, cultivating and interpreting artistic practices that ignite engagement with important issues of our time.
Our goal was to create an online engagement hub for the community to explore current exhibitions, artists, competitions, programs, events, volunteering and donation opportunities on desktop and mobile devices.
As the artists and the art is what the audience is looking to consume, and to to ensure the work is respected and presented exactly as intended by its creator.
As an inclusive institution, adherence to AODA accessibility guidelines (https://aoda.ca/) and clearly stating the land acknowledgement were imperative.
Key considerations
A key focus early on in our team workshops was to create a content inventory to be organized into intuitive categories to define our navigation options.
As the institution had a vast amount of archival / permanent assets as well as frequently changing offerings. We had to create clear labels and tags to avoid confusing our audience.
We also ensured the right content hierarchy was achieved regarding how the users consume the information presented.
Next step was to follow the user’s journey to provide links between related sections so that our audience would have a frictionless path towards engaging with the gallery.
During the design direction sessions, the focus was on clean, bold typography, high contrast between overlapping colours to be more accessible, and the use of subtle graphic elements to put the focus on the artwork and the creators.
Outcomes
KPI
After rigorous audits and screenreader testing, We achieved Level AA accessibility compliance and went beyond the guidelines to serve our diverse audience’s needs
Despite the need to use a vast amount of high quality artwork assets, we were able get to 92% performance score on Gmetrix (As an industry benchmark, Moma.org scores 72%)
The strong SEO and UX/UI design led to significantly higher engagement online and offline, worthy and inline with the prestige and values of the Art Gallery of Guelph