The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Citrus began working with the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens—one of the world's preeminent arts, educational, and research organizations—in 2005. At that time, Citrus was hired to develop a new fundraising site, which was to exist outside the framework of the organization's existing Web site. One of the reasons for this external development was that the existing site had been—quite literally—cobbled together over many years, and lacked coherence, accessibility, and a uniform aesthetic. Indeed, the fundraising initiative's anticipated success required keeping its online presence separate from the primary site. The Huntington Web site was in dire need of a dramatic overhaul.Citrus' success in realizing the Huntington's vision with respect to its fundraising campaign quickly led to other opportunities. Citrus was tasked with developing a comprehensive strategic plan for the Huntington—the goal of which was to provide detailed recommendations for revamping the Huntington's entire online presence. After several months, countless interviews, and hundreds of hours of research and analysis, Citrus presented its findings and recommendations in a report spanning more than thirty-five pages.
The report addressed the existing Web site's strengths and weaknesses, and compared it to those of benchmark organizations. It defined "user personae" in order to capture the characteristics of the Huntington's target audience groups—and then analyzed the site's effectiveness in reaching those groups. Citrus identified key areas of weakness—look and feel, information design, clarity, relevance, and functionality—and outlined opportunities for improving each. The report was praised for its insights, and substantive, actionable recommendations.
Once again, Citrus' success led to additional opportunities. Citrus was awarded the task of implementing the recommendations detailed in its strategic plan. This project—the development of a new Huntington Web site—was a formidable assignment…and a tremendous honor.
The new site features a beautiful design that is consistent with the Huntington itself—a dramatic contrast to the former site's dated, uninspiring look and feel. Images throughout—carefully selected and frequently updated—keep the pages fresh and inspire repeat visits. The new site promotes a unified Huntington "look"; gone are the former site's disjointed and confusing design elements.
Citrus implemented Ektron's CMS400.NET content management application to enable content "owners" throughout the Huntington to update their pages as needed. Ektron is as sophisticated as it is user-friendly, and will evolve to manage the site's growth over time. Integrated editorial workflow ensures that content is properly reviewed and approved before being published to the Web.
Given the need to incorporate the original site's 1,500+ pages of content, Citrus spent tremendous effort developing the updated information design. Robust search tools and user-friendly breadcrumbs ensure accessibility and intuitive way-finding. The updated calendar functionality is particularly useful, as it allows visitors to customize their event/programming views and access event-related information quickly using “at a glance” rollovers. The publication and bookstore merchandise search functionality was a large project in itself; now all of these items are easily accessible for both new and repeat visitors.
Citrus is proud of the updated Huntington Web site. Its streamlined elegance belies its substantial scope and sophistication. The result is an outstanding user experience, and an online persona that accurately reflects the Huntington itself.
www.huntington.org