03Case study

Sample project

Common Ground

A programme website for an imagined community arts festival, designed to make a busy weekend easy to plan.

Discipline: Digital experience
Sector: Culture
Year: 2025
Services: Digital, Web Design, UX

Overview

Common Ground is a fictional three-day festival of music, talks, food and workshops across a dozen venues in one neighbourhood. Its audience is wide: families, students, regulars and people who simply walk past and wonder what is happening.

We designed and built a programme website that answers the questions visitors actually have: what is on now, what is near me, and what can I bring the kids to. It is fast on a phone, legible in sunlight and clear about access.

Challenge

Festival sites often look exciting and work badly. Huge hero videos and clever navigation hide the timetable, which is the one thing everyone needs. On the day itself, people are on patchy mobile data, standing in a street, trying to find a venue.

The programme also changes. Events move, sell out or get added late. The site had to make changes obvious without alarming people, and it had to be easy for a small festival team to update.

Creative approach

01
Timetable as the homepage
The first thing on the homepage is what is on next, sorted by start time and walking distance. Everything else, from the festival story to the sponsor list, sits below it. Energy comes from colour and type, not from hiding information.
02
Filters that speak human
Instead of technical categories, filters use the questions people ask: Free, Good for kids, Step-free, Ends before 9pm. Filters can be combined and are kept in the URL, so a shared link opens the same view.
03
A map that knows its limits
The venue map is a simplified drawing, not a full street map. It shows the twelve venues, toilets, water points and step-free routes, and each venue links to directions in the visitor's own map app.
04
Built for a bad signal
Pages are light, images are lazy-loaded and the programme is cached for offline reading once visited. Late changes appear as a clear, dated note on the event itself rather than a banner across every page.

Three mobile screens from the Common Ground programme guide — The mobile guide puts what is on next at the top.

A group of people gathered around a campfire among pine trees at dusk — Photography favours gatherings over stages.

An audience cheering with raised hands at a live event — Event imagery is cropped to leave room for type.

Deliverables

Information architecture and user journeys
Programme, event and venue page design
Filterable timetable and venue map
Accessibility review and content guidelines
Front-end build and simple editing workflow
Social and signage graphics kit

Timeline

Weeks 1–3
Listen and define
Visitor interviews, past programme review and content model.
Weeks 4–5
Visual idea
Type and colour system tested on the timetable first.
Weeks 6–11
Make and refine
Design and build in short cycles, with usability checks on real phones.
Weeks 12–13
Ship with care
Content entry, editor training and a pre-festival performance check.

Studio roles

Creative direction
UX design
Interface design
Front-end development

Sample project created for the Vortex template. Not real client work.

Next project — 04Field Notes

All projects →

07
Good Measure
Digital product / Technology — 2026
View →
11
Open Form
Website / Creative technology — 2026
View →
12
After Hours
Campaign / Culture — 2026
View →

Contact

Have a good one in mind?

Tell us what you’re building. We’ll work out the next step together.

Start a Project Send an Email

Prefer a form? Use the contact page. We usually reply within two working days.

Overview

Challenge

The programme also changes. Events move, sell out or get added late. The site had to make changes obvious without alarming people, and it had to be easy for a small festival team to update.

Creative approach

Timetable as the homepage

The first thing on the homepage is what is on next, sorted by start time and walking distance. Everything else, from the festival story to the sponsor list, sits below it. Energy comes from colour and type, not from hiding information.

Filters that speak human

Instead of technical categories, filters use the questions people ask: Free, Good for kids, Step-free, Ends before 9pm. Filters can be combined and are kept in the URL, so a shared link opens the same view.

A map that knows its limits

The venue map is a simplified drawing, not a full street map. It shows the twelve venues, toilets, water points and step-free routes, and each venue links to directions in the visitor's own map app.

Built for a bad signal

Pages are light, images are lazy-loaded and the programme is cached for offline reading once visited. Late changes appear as a clear, dated note on the event itself rather than a banner across every page.

Timeline

Weeks 1–3

Listen and define

Visitor interviews, past programme review and content model.

Weeks 4–5

Visual idea

Type and colour system tested on the timetable first.

Weeks 6–11

Make and refine

Design and build in short cycles, with usability checks on real phones.

Weeks 12–13

Ship with care

Content entry, editor training and a pre-festival performance check.

Overview

Challenge

Creative approach

Timetable as the homepage

Filters that speak human

A map that knows its limits

Built for a bad signal

Deliverables

Timeline

Studio roles

Related work

Good Measure

Open Form

After Hours

Have a good one in mind?

Overview

Challenge

Creative approach

Timetable as the homepage

Filters that speak human

A map that knows its limits

Built for a bad signal

Deliverables

Timeline

Studio roles

Related work

Good Measure

Open Form

After Hours

Have a good one in mind?