Anime Boston Website Redesign

I've been a member of the Anime Boston community since 2017 when I attended my first convention, even becoming a volunteer in recent years as a member of the support squad.

Despite its status as New England's largest anime convention Anime Boston's website has remained relatively unchanged from ~2013. Being vastly outmoded by many of the websites of other conventions across the country. Being entirely volunteer run resources can often be spread thin across the convention's organization. Leading to a lack of urgency to improve the visuals of the website and bring it in line with the modern style sites used by its competitors. Through selective changes and visual overhauls to key pages the Anime Boston website can be refreshed bringing a new digital face to the convention providing use for the next decade of the conventions operation.

The Problem

Anime Boston, an annual anime convention held in the Hynes Convention Center is New England's Largest anime convention with an average attendance of over 25k each year. However despite the convention’s size it’s website lags behind its competitors such as Anime NYC, A-Kon, and Sakuracon in many key areas such as visual style, usability, and overall presentation. Being a volunteer-run convention it is hard to implement change; the previous website existed relatively unchanged since the early 2010s before being replaced by the current website.

My Solution

To improve the experience of using Anime Boston’s website for both new and returning attendees, as well as facilitate better conversion of visitors into new attendees several improvements had to be made. Redesigning the home page so it can function as a better ambassador for the convention as well as increase the conversion rate of visitors into first time attendees. Refining navigation sitewide to improve clarity to create a better overall browsing experience. Giving the website a facelift bringing its visual style closer to competitors as well as improving accessibility to better meet industry standards.

Check out more on my portfolio: https://gbarrowsux.com/projects/anime-boston-website