Introduction

Mayan Café sits firmly in the heart of Louisville’s dining scene. Offering unique seasonal, local cuisine with authentic Mayan influences, Chef Bruce Ucán and General Manager Anne Shadle have created a must-visit dining destination with a far-reaching and loyal fan base. Having grown strongly and steadily in the four years they have been open, they found that they had grown up a bit. The interior of the restaurant needed an upgrade, as did the website. We saw this as an opportunity to sharpen their brand by refining the logo and redesigning the menus.

Design

We were delighted in the initial phases to work with De Leon & Primmer Architecture. They had signed on to update the interior of the restaurant. We all agreed that the color palette should be executed through from the interior into the site design and beyond. De Leon & Primmer developed a color palette of browns and reds to compliment the the dishes of Chef Bruce: the rich colors speak of roasted peppers and sauces and are intended to compliment the food on the table. The interior of the restaurant was repainted in these colors with a light-catching design pattern on the walls. New weathered wooden chairs lend a rustic feel to the space. Chef Bruce’s own Mayan glyph paintings hang in parts of the restaurant. The entire interior has been transformed.

Logo

Our challenge with the logo was to strengthen, not change what was already there. Papyrus had to go as a logotype. We couldn’t lose the Mayan glyph. It means “new beginnings” and sums up the optimism of the restaurant’s brand. We changed the logotype to a more modern sans-serif and strengthened the glyph, making it more vivid so it prints better and can be seen from a distance. This rendition lends itself to replication.

Menu

The original menu used centered text that was difficult to read and to modify when menu items changed. A refresh instantly made the menu friendlier and easier to navigate. The OpenMenu service allows the General Manager to easily update menu items for print.

The Website

Most people at one time or another have lamented how horrible restaurant websites can be. Unnecessary Flash animations, phone numbers that can’t be found, music, and hard-to-read PDF menus make usability experts fall to the ground in hysterics and leave hungry diners looking for another place to eat. We started from scratch and were able to develop a restaurant site that will set the bar a little higher.

Strategy

The Mayan Café has a loyal repeat-customer following and premiere partner recommendations from tourist attractions around the city. We needed to present a site that was attractive, alluring and informative, both on the web as well as on the phone. We wanted to give credit to the local farms and food providers that produce the ingredients found on the tables of the restaurant. By combining the talent of Kriech-Higdon Photography with superior content we would create a site that would accomplish the main goals of the restaurant: more reservations for lunch & dinner.

Tactics

• Design: Capture the spirit of the restaurant without distracting Flash or music elements
• Photography: High-quality photography from Kriech-Higdon Photography
• Daily Specials: Custom Post Types, fed into Twitter & Facebook
• News and Reviews
• Menus: Partner with OpenMenu.com, Show Allergen/Vegetarian Options
• Mobile: Truncated site for iPhone and Android

Implementation

Daily Specials: Both lunch and dinner often feature multiple single day specials featuring fresh, locally sourced food. We built the specials as a Custom Post type to allow a Twitter service to pull the RSS and post automatically. WordPress allows post scheduling, freeing up management to enter specials in the morning before business hours begin. Lunch and Dinner specials deploy at a pre-determined time, whetting the appetites of prospective diners just in time for them to make reservations.

Recipes, News & Reviews: The Mayan Café is a media-darling. Reviewers love to expound on how delicious, inventive and generally enjoyable dining at the restaurant can be. The Tok-sel Lima Beans have shined a spotlight on the beleaguered vegetable, and the recipe is one of the most requested of all time. The site needed a way to gracefully display new press, recipes and news items without seeming too ‘bloggy’. Users can now sort by category the type of information they are looking for.

Catering: The Mayan Café’s catering skills are one of Louisville’s best kept secrets. Customized menus and stellar service are the hallmarks of their events and their previous customers list reads like a “Who’s Who” in town. They needed a way to organize their catering calls and to call attention to this unique approach to feeding groups elegantly. We chose to dedicate a section of the site, complete with personalized testimonials. We also gave them a new Google Voice phone number for web and print pieces to integrate with analytics so we can track calls and the success of other marketing endeavors.

Farm to Table: A big part of the philosophy behind the restaurant is the solid belief that the freshest, highest quality food comes from local sources. The Mayan Café has a growing association of farm partners with whom they work to provide the best of whatever is available in any given season. Because of this, the food supply is varied and the menus change often. We wanted to showcase this local connection, as well as to encourage the restaurant to speak out about who they partner with, and why.

Menus: Web menus in general are difficult to keep up-to-date. There was also concern that vegetarian items and allergy information be easily disclosed. The OpenMenu solution allows the Manager to update in a single place and easily push changes to the web and to print.

Mobile: How often have you decided to dine somewhere and not been able to call for reservations because you couldn’t find the number? We wanted people to be able to view daily specials, menus and easily call for reservations, any time, any where, and on with any device.

In closing

We’re extremely proud of Mayan Café for recognizing the importance of a well thought marketing strategy, utilizing online tools and tactics such as social media, content strategy, and mobile delivery. We’re honored they chose us for the update, and we look forward to a prosperous ongoing relationship.

Introduction

Now in its 47th season, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the State Theatre of Kentucky, has emerged as one of America’s most consistently innovative professional theatre companies. Actors Theatre’s programming includes a broad range of work, presenting more than 500 performances each season. The company performs annually to nearly 200,000 people and is the recipient of the most prestigious awards bestowed on a regional theatre: a special Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement, the James N. Vaughan Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contribution to the Development of Professional Theatre, and the Margo Jones Award for the Encouragement of New Plays. Patrons of the arts in Louisville are proud to include Actors Theatre in their repertoire.

The Website

Actors Theatre had outgrown their previous website design. The navigation was confusing and hard to use. Content and calls to action were stuffed wherever possible, and for a company with historically award winning design and illustration assets, the site was saddled with an inflexible content management system that could not support the work. We saw the project as an opportunity to use our knowledge to help out an organization that is a vital part of our community.

In addition to promoting the regular season of plays and performances, Actors Theatre offers many other opportunities for the community of patrons and professionals:

• The Humana Festival of New American Plays
• Statewide Education Outreach
• Fundraisers and philanthropic support
• Comprehensive Apprentice & Intern Programs

The Challenge

Goals

One of the first tasks for this project was to create a defined list of action oriented goals for this website. What did we (the combined marketing team) want users to do with this website? To clearly define this list, we met with stakeholders from each department at the theatre to get a thorough understanding of their process and their individual needs from their public facing website. These meetings produced the following list:

• Buy tickets: seasons, shows, events.
• Donate to fundraisers & programs
• Learn about opportunities to participate with the theatre

These meetings also produced a set of goals that would improve internal process:

• Improved forms systems
• Integrated and Achievable Cast & Crew directory
• Integrated and Achievable Event Management system
• Increased use of the brilliant graphic and photographic assets of the Theatre

With these client goals in hand, the design and development teams created their own set of production goals:

Direct traffic quickly through action-oriented navigation.

Many websites use their navigation to explain their organizational structure. We wanted to be more user-centric. By leading users through the site with action items we were able to capitalize on the chief goals of the Theatre: viewing show times and buying tickets. We also made use of footers and what we’re calling “pre-footers” to guide people to deeper content.

Be progressive.

Actors Theatre has a great reputation as a regional arts institution. We went into the project with the intention of breaking some rules. We do many large-scale sites that have to abide by the tried and true guidelines for usability and accessibility. With Actors being an arts organization, we had more freedom with the design, which made it extremely fun for the entire team. We were inspired by the amazing Actors Theatre art and wanted to exceed typical “out of the box” solutions.

Design

• Individual show designs
• Section individuality
• Roll-up footer
• Font replacement

Architecture

• Sense of discovery
• Callout strategies. “Pre-footers”

Leverage the native functionality of WordPress.
WordPress could natively handle 90% of the site requirements, but we had to be organized about setting it up with Custom Post Types and Custom Taxonomies. CPT & CT’s were used for Events, Shows, Cast & Crew Directory, and we wrote a custom Scheduling plugin for the calendar.

The Design

Each show staged at Actors Theatre has its own identity and its own set of visual assets, and we wanted those individual experiences to shine. By using a clean and modern template to display content we were able to allow the show artwork to drive the home and show pages. The colors used throughout content pages are an updated interpretation of colors used within the Actors Theatre branding, satisfying the need of the theatre to reinvent itself each show, while retaining an overall brand of a established artistic institution.

Because multiple shows are on different stages at one time, we also needed a way to give equal billing or priority to each show without detracting from the other event, while continually promoting upcoming events during the season. These needs gave rise to a homepage with a main show graphic that users can manually switch out, and dynamic ‘also on’ and ‘upcoming events’ solutions that incorporate the alternative main page content.

The Result

The numbers compared to last season’s analytics are stunning:

• Visits: UP 56+%
• Pageviews: UP 82+%
• Pages per Visit: UP 18+%
• Bounce Rate: DOWN 10%

The new site has already garnered praise from all over, and has won an award from the Louisville Graphic Design Association.

The Future

Actors Theatre is enjoying an extremely successful season, and we look forward to the partnership for years to come. Future updates include continued improvements to the Cast & Crew Directory, a more streamlined e-commerce ticket buying process, a mobile site, and continued internal process improvements that will keep Actors Theatre on the cutting edge into the foreseeable future.

About PVA

From a tax standpoint, if you want to find out what your property is worth, the PVA is where you go. The Jefferson County Property Valuation Administrator’s office is the largest PVA office in Kentucky, with a nearly $56 billion assessment roll. Boone County is the fastest growing county in the state. The PVA mission: to assess all property for tax purposes, maintain accurate parcel information, and make this information easily accessible to the public. At a basic level, the PVA offers information for free. For more in-depth information, the PVA offers a wide variety of subscription options.

The Challenge

Both PVA office websites were in need of an update. The navigationPVA Navigation: Before of Jefferson County’s site was confusing and redundant, while Boone County offered none of the advanced search options increasingly being required by their constituents. Jefferson County had a subscriber base of thousands so the transition between old site and new site had to be seamless. Add to that a very strict deadline, and you’ve got yourself a challenging project!

VIA’s Role

Information Architecture

The most important directive of the Jefferson County PVA website is to produce information as quickly and effortlessly as possible. This requires intuitive navigation and content delivery through well thought out information design.PVA Navigation: After

The process included:

• Studying the layout and traffic patterns of the existing website
• Sending out a survey to existing users asking them for improvements they would like to see
• Gathering the most frequently answered questions to the PVA offices

We determined the majority of site traffic went to three key areas so we created prominent entry points for this information while always maintaining a goal of being only two clicks away from the information users want.
Property Search

The PVA website should provide accurate, detailed, and useful property value information. With this in mind we improved the property search section while keeping all information that users of the site had come to expect. We spent time developing a more useful and appealing presentation for the property listings and property details pages.PVA Property Search

The details page now provides more information at the top of the page and includes a photo gallery for all property images. We performed database analysis to improve queries on the large set of property data. We were able to increase the efficiency and performance of the Property Search feature, and continue to optimize this feature.
Subscription Service

Although obtaining property information through the PVA office is technically free, the cost of providing a web service is not. We designed and built a subscription service from scratch that plugs nicely into each PVA site. It provides increased account management, tracks the number of active sessions, and gives options for upgrading subscriptions.PVA Subscription Signup Process

To add value, the new site offers a Neighborhood Sales Search with the Advanced Property Search for one low price where as it was billed separately as an add-on service. In addition to the PVA sites, this advanced type of subscription ecommerce is something that we intend to use on upcoming sites we are building.

Content Management

The website was built in WordPress so the PVA staff can now update their own content to help cut back on site maintenance costs. Ongoing security updates are easily handled, because the CMS is not proprietary.

The list of improvements go on and on:

• Video: Ability to easily embed video on the site, as well as a screen-cast to help visitors through the subscriber process.
• News & Blog: The PVA now has the ability to communicate with their constituents through an easily updated blog feature.
• Dedicated Server: We built a dedicated server to handle the traffic the site generates. This server gives PVA complete ownership and accountability.
• Advanced Tracking and Analytics: Google Analytics and other tracking mechanisms are now on the site. Future improvements will be implemented from real data and not guesswork.
• Google Apps: Jefferson PVA has now completely migrated to Google Apps Premiere for all their email, calendar and document management.
• Website Promotions: To build excitement and create awareness, we hosted surveys, composed and managed email newsletters and, launched the new PVA site with a press conference.

Coming Soon: PVA mobile app utilizing GPS location to retrieve local property values with improved map data.

About Floyd Memorial

Floyd Memorial Hospital and Health Services is the preferred regional health care delivery system in southern Indiana. FMHHS offers a comprehensive range of health care services and has been nationally recognized for its excellence in compassionate patient care, technical quality, cost effectiveness and enhanced community health.

VIA’s Role

FMHHS came to VIA Studio with a strong identity and a locally well known brand. Having recently launched an extensive marketing effort with commercials, billboards and newsletters, FMHHS wanted their website to reflect that strong identity and brand. We took the time to properly understand their goals and the message they wanted to relay to their stakeholders. The result is a timeless, user-focused website that blends seamlessly with their overall marketing effort. FMHHS excels at casting a broad net with their brand. By integrating their print advertising endeavors with their online marketing plans they are able to consistently provide brand awareness across all modes of communication.

Continual Improvement

Floyd Memorial Hospital prides itself on being technologically advanced. Consistent with that, the marketing team at FMMHS has been diligent at improving the content and the user experience on their website. Since the launch of the site in 2007, we have worked together to develop and launch tools that will improve the usability and usefulness of the site to users. Since the initial launch of the site in we have released improvements including an Online BillPay system, an online weight management resources system, a Physician Directory, and a series of affiliate medical group sites to assist patients in finding general practitioners and family doctors in an area near them.

FMHHS has always been proactive in generating quality content for their website and we have worked together to re-produce their bi-monthly medical publication, HealthScope, online since the launch of the site in 2007, and we have been working to improve it since.Most recently, in 2010 FMHHS branched out into Social Media, setting up a Facebook Page to acknowledge staff awards and to share career information.

Update: The site won an award from the Louisville Graphic Design Association‘s 100 Show in December 2008.

About Robert Rich

Over three decades and through over 30 albums, Robert Rich has helped define the genres of ambient music, dark-ambient, tribal and trance music. Rich has designed sounds for television and film scores, including the films Pitch Black, Crazy Beautiful, Behind Enemy Lines and others. As mastering engineer and mixer, he has applied his ear to albums in all styles. Robert’s studio has been featured twice in Keyboard Magazine, and elsewhere worldwide.

VIA’s Role

We immersed ourselves in Robert Rich: in his long history in the music industry, in the way his music has made people feel, and in the beautiful art that Robert has made an integral part of his music. Piece by piece we put together a website design that is a true reflection of Robert & his art. Robert is a very web-savvy person, having maintained a blog by himself for more than a decade. He is also well-versed in graphic design, having directed a visual vocabulary for his designs that are as rich as his music. As such, Robert was intensely involved in every step. The end result is a website that allows Robert to communicate more effectively with his audience. Robert’s site is easily maintained with a user friendly content management system. RobertRich.com captures the message and feeling that is Robert Rich.