The popular Australian musical underwent a complete website refresh before embarking on its sparkling national tour.
the brief
Understanding user challenges
Created originally to champion the work through its first season at Melbourne Theatre Company, the website resembled a show programme. It included the show's title and billing, a synopsis, reviews and a short video of part of a performance.
Users weren't able to see which locations the show was touring to, its schedule, where to buy tickets, or how to interact with the show more deeply via merch and sheet music.
Key problems
Overall, the refresh aimed to firstly, encourage conversions (from social media or online ads to ticket sales) and secondly, improve visuals to align with the show's sub brand and colour palette.
constraints
Audience
Most people coming to see the show were single-ticket buyers – rather than members of Melbourne Theatre Company – as this was a return season and extended tour of an already popular Australian musical based on a well-known Australian book. The audience was split into pre-existing fans who wanted to engage more deeply (often buying tickets to multiple shows across multiple locations), new fans, locals who had missed out on the sold-out run a year earlier, those travelling to see the show outside their city, and tourists visiting the touring cities. It was a broad audience with a broad spectrum of familiarity with the work.
What they needed
Above all, the audience needed to buy tickets quickly to their preferred performance location and have a joyful experience that extended beyond the energy of the show. The goal was that all users would feel immersed in the production and understand the experience the show offered.
process
First, I reviewed other touring productions' websites and did a heuristic review of the existing My Brilliant Career site. Then, I created a site map to finalise the page and link structure. Both of these steps were done in Figma and through this analysis, I identified a number of UX issues that informed my UX decisions below.
UX decisions
Usability – I decided to maintain a one-page site to reduce complexity and assist with user navigation. Based on my research, a one-page structure is often preferred for touring websites. I found that the touring websites could be difficult to navigate if sub pages were hidden deep in navigations or only accessible via a direct link (such as via an eDM).
A main navbar was also implemented, listing the different sections on the page so users could navigate content quickly and easily. Using the show colours for background sections also helped to differentiate content more clearly. I used custom CSS to style the navbar and sheet music pages.
Equity – I employed WGAC standards to ensure the show's colour palette was used in an accessible way. The colour palette was originally developed for print (the show's merch, posters and other print media), so consideration of this for a digital application was particularly important. Large buttons, large headings and using Arial as a simple serif font improved legibility, and a clearer text hierarchy was implemented. Mixed media (photos, videos) were also used to encourage everyone to engage with the show content, no matter any personal limitations.
Usefulness – Touring locations were placed at the top of the page and in the navbar, with external links to corresponding websites. Touring dates were included in the body copy. This was prioritised in the page hierarchy over the play synopsis to ensure tickets could be accessed easily. This highlighted the CTAs that were previously buried in body copy.
Enjoyment – Show colours were implemented in shapes to show movement (like music moving) and to create energy as the user scrolled through the page. I wanted to create excitement as each section of the page was revealed. I pulled a quote from a show song and used the show font to create a typographic representation of the show that expanded on the merch style.
Responsive & technical decisions
Most users would be accessing the web page with their phones, so it was crucial to make the page responsive. This involved developing a nav menu specifically for mobile, structuring sections top-down to keep headings clear and creating mobile-friendly versions of images.
Evaluation
The website went through a number of testing rounds with stakeholders and users to ensure it solved the UX problems identified above.
outcome
Outcome
Overall, the resulting website was designed for the user first. It was clear that having a one-stop hub for the national tour deepened audience engagement from social media click-throughs. The show did very well with ticket buyers however exact numbers cannot yet be shared publicly.
It was rewarding to build a website for all types of ticket buyers, including those who wanted to engage with the magic of the show once it was over. My Brilliant Career is a beautiful Australian musical that brought people together. In fact, for its final leg of the tour, a number of fans across different cities coordinated to see a performance together and traded bracelets and other items they made before the show. It was rewarding to be involved in a small way.
What I'd test next
It would be really interesting to gather information about exact conversions across all touring locations and how that compared with other touchpoints for ticket buyers. It would also be useful to do a heat map analysis of the page to understand opportunities for extended content and whether some sections might be worth developing or enhancing.
