Carnegie Hall

Background

Even after the internet boom had ended, Carnegie Hall had almost no web presence at all. The board decided that they needed a fully-functional website that handled upcoming events, online ticketing, support, history, and detailed all of the many community programs Carnegie Hall offered. Carnegie Hall had an existing relationship with a ticketing service, so any online ticketing would mean 3rd party integration. And, in addition to having many older, non-web-savvy users, Carnegie Hall wanted to make sure the site was accessibility to people with disabilities.

Project Summary

The priority of the site was selling tickets, so the homepage was designed to focus on upcoming events. Major events were given an extremely prominent position in an animated area in the center of the homepage, but since all promotions were contained within the site navigation, users who were interested in other areas of the site could get there quickly and easily.

Each event was given a multi-page detailed view, with all relevant information and persistent links to online ticket purchasing. The event calendar dynamically displayed 3 days at a time, with featured events (by far the most commonly purchased) displayed on top. A "My Carnegie Hall" area of the site was also created to allow users to keep a personalized calendar with recommended accounts as well as special services to high-donors.

The site was built using a custom XML-based content management system, Java, Flash, and HTML. Using an XML-based content management system not only allowed elements' display to change based on where they were in the site, but also allowed the entire site to be displayed differently for users using browsers for the disabled.