Arts Law - Artists in the Black
Partner
Background
Arts Law wanted to create a new visual identity and content strategy for their one of their most impactful programs - Artists In The Black We helped them design and develop this new section of their website and provided sound advice for future digital work.
THE ASK
Arts Law is an organisation whose mission is to empower artists and creative communities through the law. One of their most impactful programs is Artists In the Black, which provides tailored advice, resources, and education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait artists and arts organisations.
Arts Law partnered with Code for Australia to redesign and redevelop the Artists in The Black section of the website to ensure it had these pages had own culturally appropriate visual identity, and could incorporate more interactivity for users.
Having previously engaged Code for Australia for a Fellowship in 2021, Arts Law were excited to continue their digital capability building journey through the Advisory Service program.
Alongside the work we delivered for the Artists in the Black page, Code for Australia provided detailed advice to Arts Law, to ensure that future digital products could be properly scoped, resourced, and delivered.
OUR APPROACH
We embedded our team of two Advisors into the Arts Law team for a period of 3 months. Our User Experience Advisor had previously worked with Arts Law on a Fellowship, and leveraged her existing relationships and knowledge to expedite some research activities. Throughout the engagement the Advisors worked closely with internal staff as well as an Indigenous Liaison Consultant.
With a fixed number of days to deliver the work, the Advisors prioritised speaking to users as soon as they could, and they kept an open dialogue with them throughout the process to ensure that we could rapidly test new ideas and ensure they were worth pursuing.
As we had previously worked with Arts Law during a Fellowship in which we build a guided pathway, we were able to repurpose some of the work that had previously been done to ensure we had more time to focus on ensuring the Artists In the Black pages were working for users.
By centring users in every decision and constantly iterating, the Advisors were able to deliver a beautifully designed and easy to comprehend section of the Arts Law website, that guides users through an interactive journey and most importantly, easily conveys the legal services and resources available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.
THE PROCESS
Understand the needs of users
Create a visual identity
Develop content strategy based on user needs
Build the new pages, while constantly iterating
Conduct usability testing with users
Provide documentation and future recommendations
RESEARCH AND TESTING ACTIVITIES
Ensuring that cultural safety practices were upheld during the recruitment, and delivery of user research activities was paramount. To do so we worked closely with the Artist in the Black Program Manager as well as an Indigenous Liaison Consultant who were available to sit on research activities.
Despite the success of the Artists in the Black program, Arts Law were keen to understand how the program was perceived and how they as an organisation could more easily communicate the offerings of the program. In order to uncover this, the Advisors focused on the visual identity and content of the existing Artists in the Black webpage.
The testing process involved:
10+ participants which included artists, curators, program coordinators, and art centre managers
Creating new user archetypes each with their own User Journeys
Conducting surveys, and utilising Google Analytics to understand user behaviour on the relevant pages.
DELIVERABLES
The key deliverables for this project included:
Extensive user research and user testing data to inform decision making
Detailed UI designs
- Two new WordPress templates which enable the orange theme navigation and associated metadata fields
- New WordPress content blocks which can be repurposed on the rest of the websit
- Design and implementation of an Acknowledgement of Country modal (universal to the site)
OUTCOMES: USER-CENTRED CONTENT AND UI
Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists interviewed during user research indicated that the look and feel of the existing webpages did not give them an indication that the Artists in the Black program was for them. Many also indicated that it was difficult to understand what services and resources were being offered to them as part of the program.
We ensured that by simplifying the written content, and building out a culturally appropriate and accessible visual identity for the Artists in the Black program, users of the pages would be able to properly engage with the services being offered.
OUTCOMES: FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS
Alongside delivering the new pages and website features, the Advisors also left the Arts Law team with a number of future recommendations relating to their Artists in the Black program.
Some of these recommendations included:
Creating more content that depicts various arts practices
Ensuring that copy being written is culturally accessible, an in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
Engage an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to enrich the Artists in the Black brand and further reinforce that it is for Indigenous Artists and Organisations
Read more of our Case Studies to dig deeper into the work we've done.
