Brooklyn-based visual artist Martha Walker came to 15 minutes media looking to streamline her website in both aesthetic and marketing contexts. After reviewing her website, we developed a plan within her budget to clean up her code using the latest CSS and web compliant technology as well as increase usability in navigation, SEO marketing, and the visual appeal of features such as the navigation and gallery. Martha's original site had been created by converting Microsoft Word documents into HTML (a big no-no) and the code was very buggy and heavy. This made the pages take a long time to download and search engines had trouble spidering her website. Additionally, many of the images displayed on the site were very large files, increasing download time and requiring viewers to scroll to view the entire image. The Old Martha Walker Homepage and Gallery page, respectively:

Without dramatically changing the overall design, we were able to clean up the code and make the site more visibly appealing. We added content to the homepage to draw visitors in immediately. By putting up current content, visitors can see that the site is up to date and instantly be aware of new shows and exhibits. We left aligned the fonts and made them sans-serif, making the text easier to read. We also fixed the width of the layout.

Next we tackled the gallery. We created thumbnails of each sculpture. Since Martha has photos of each piece from several angles, we created a secondary detail page so that more information about each item could be displayed.

The New Martha Walker Homepage and Gallery page, respectively:

We added a feature that allows users to blow up the image by clicking on the thumbnail. This is an advantage because it reduces the number of clicks and pages for website visitors. Check it out for yourself: http://marthawalker.net/gallery_passion.html. An example of this enlarge is as follows:

Martha Walker's Official Website relaunch arrives just in time for her very busy summer/fall season including work in the 440 Gallery's Small Works Show, Residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and her upcoming Solo Exhibition, Undercurrents, at 440 Gallery. The press releases for each of the aforementioned are conveniently located on her brand new events page.

With just a few simple changes, your website usability and visibility can be improved.