Event Promotion Website

Features: UX/UI, Wireframe Design, Prototyping

Tools: Adobe XD, Mural

Timeline: October 2022 - November 2022

Background:

The objective of this project was to create a website promoting a ‘Squirrel Appreciation Day’ event in Central Park in New York City.

The goals were to:

Spread awareness about the history of squirrels
Promote the sponsors contributing to the event
Encourage people to register for the event on the website

The main challenge was to create a website that would capture the attention of visitors and effectively communicate the importance of squirrel appreciation.

Process:

I started by conducting research on similar events and websites to get an idea of the target audience's interests and preferences. Then I researched the history of squirrels and their importance to the ecosystem.

Once I got an overview of the history, I took a creative approach to my research by watching the podcast 99% Invisible, specifically episode 352, Uptown Squirrel.

Recommended by a professor, 99% Invisible discusses areas of the world that go unnoticed, but possess great power in design and architecture. This episode was about The Explorer’s Club in New York City and their event where they attempted to count all of the Squirrels in Central Park.

Main Takeaways from the Podcast:

"The squirrels that we all take for granted as we walk through the park or on our way to the gym or the office are only there because we put them there. Squirrels were intentionally put into parks where they were fed and sheltered."
“For 82 minutes, on December 9th, 1987, Nasdaq was offline, losing an estimated 20 million trades, all of which were later traced back to a squirrel. This creature had chewed through a power line in Connecticut from which Nasdaq drew its electricity.”
“Even as Americans squirrels were taking out shopping malls and stock exchanges and invading foreign countries, the very things that had allowed them to proliferate in the first place were slowly being taken away.”
“Naturalist Gabriel Willow believes there is a different way to connect to these animals — by keeping a respectful distance, we can observe and appreciate behaviors that we don’t get to witness when we invite a squirrel to eat out of our hand.”

Using my research and the ideas I came up with for content after listening to this podcast episode, I created an Information Architecture diagram through the collaborative space Mural to help visualize the foundation of this website.

I decided to have 4 pages along with the homepage. In this diagram, I have “About” as its own page, but I realized it would be more effective to have that information on the homepage itself. So instead, I changed the diagram and added a “Contact” page so people can reach out with inquiries regarding the event or becoming a sponsor.

I also wrote a summary of the event that I kept in mind throughout the designing and prototyping of the site.

“Squirrel Appreciation Day – An event where explorers, wildlife lovers, scientists, and squirrel fans can all come together for a tour of Central Park to observe the wildlife and connect with the squirrels on another level.”

Visual Language:

After research was finished, I began making a visual language guide to follow when creating the screens for my website. Below are my original concepts for what I wanted specific parts of the website to look like. Then I made edits to the visual language once I started bringing my ideas to life in the screens.

I decided to use an earthy color scheme since my target audience is mainly nature lovers and wildlife experts, and I also chose to create a logotype for the event to make it more memorable to the viewers of the site.

Website Screens:

Final Touches & Results:

Lastly, I prototyped the interactions throughout the site. Below is a screen recording of the final product! For the client, we showed them a preview of these four screens.

Overall, the ‘Squirrel Appreciation Day’ event and website were a great example of how a well-designed website and effective promotion can help to generate buzz and support for a cause.

Event Promotion Website

Background:

Process:

Main Takeaways from the Podcast:

"The squirrels that we all take for granted as we walk through the park or on our way to the gym or the office are only there because we put them there. Squirrels were intentionally put into parks where they were fed and sheltered."

“For 82 minutes, on December 9th, 1987, Nasdaq was offline, losing an estimated 20 million trades, all of which were later traced back to a squirrel. This creature had chewed through a power line in Connecticut from which Nasdaq drew its electricity.”

“Even as Americans squirrels were taking out shopping malls and stock exchanges and invading foreign countries, the very things that had allowed them to proliferate in the first place were slowly being taken away.”

“Naturalist Gabriel Willow believes there is a different way to connect to these animals — by keeping a respectful distance, we can observe and appreciate behaviors that we don’t get to witness when we invite a squirrel to eat out of our hand.”

Visual Language:

Website Screens:

Final Touches & Results:

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Jennifer Noelle