Accessible connections through art
As the leading art gallery in Guelph, Ontario AGG’s mission is to advance the arts globally as a pioneer in exceptional, impactful, and inclusive programming
Our goal was to create an online engagement hub for the art community to explore current exhibitions, artists, competitions, programs, events, support opportunities on desktop and mobile devices.
As an inclusive institution, adherence to AODA accessibility guidelines and clearly stating the land acknowledgement disclaimer 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 resulting in clear navigation options.
As the institution had a vast amount of archival and permanent assets as well as frequently changing offerings. We had to create clear labels and tags for each piece to avoid confusing our audience.
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 frictionless navigation and longer engagement around their interests.
During the design direction sessions, we selected clean, bold typography, high contrast between overlapping colours to be more accessible. The use of large negative spaces with subtle UI elements was intentional so that the focus would be on the artwork and the creators.
Remarkable
Outcomes
After rigorous audits and screenreader testing, Level AA accessibility compliance was achieved to serve our diverse audience’s needs.
On the admin side, custom editing options we implemented made the day-to-day tasks of the admin team a breeze.
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 of the reputation of the Art Gallery of Guelph.