The PBS Online Film Festival is an annual online juried film festival, featuring diverse films from member stations, producers and public media partners. Viewers can watch, vote and share their favorites films. Since its launch in 2012, it has attracted more than 6 million video streams over the first six years.

Under the creative direction of David Wilder, I used my user experience skills to research, wireframe and design the campaign website. I also art directed a development team to build out the final website. Our goal was is to create a human-centered interactive experience of the online film festival, so that visitors to the site are fully engaged.

The original site was built on the BENTO platform, had many design restrictions and lacked user engagement.

We began by pitching different potential concepts to PBS executives. They decided to move forward with number two.

1) Develop a website that encapsulates both the PBS Indies brand plus the Online Film Festival website

2) Develop a Film Festival website with integrated voting abilities and other enhanced features

3) Enhance the existing SnapApp functionality
 

Not all websites start with user research. Some already have the research done beforehand. So in this situation, I used my knowledge of the user base to research website patterns that could be reworked for the uses of an online film festival.

Once I found patterns that were suitable, I developed a site map based on the provided content.

I put together a series of wireframes, for both low fidelity prototyping as well as content strategy. Below are some examples of them.

Based on the design anesthetic created by David, I put together high fidelity mockups including their responsive breakpoints. We went through a series of rounds and finally landed on these designs. They represent the final buildout.

The resulting website both improved engagement and improved visibility of the festival, allowing it to become an annual showcase for years to come.