UX Design · Visual Design · Brand Application

Heartland Film Festival

A full site redesign built around how festival audiences actually use a site. Designed for the full event lifecycle, with third-party tools brought in-site to reduce friction at every key moment.

Snapshots of the website

The Problem
Heartland's existing site was built for one moment: the ticket window. Before it opened, the site had little to offer. After the festival ended, it went quiet. High-intent actions like buying tickets, joining as a member, and submitting films all routed users away from the site entirely, breaking the experience at the moments that mattered most.
My Role
Lead Designer across UX and visual design, collaborating with a development partner through a four-phase engagement from strategy through launch.
  • Designed for four site states based on where audiences are in the festival cycle: before tickets are available, during the sales window, post-event, and archived
  • Brought third-party tools in-site so ticketing, membership, and film submission content no longer pushed users off the HFF experience
  • Built a component library and style tile system to extend and elevate the existing Heartland brand
  • Designed for five user types within one IA: festival-goers, film submitters, members, donors, and volunteers

Snapshots of the website

The Results
  • Four distinct site states designed to serve audiences year-round, not just during the ticket window
  • Reduced friction at every high-intent moment by keeping third-party actions within the HFF experience
  • Reusable component library built to scale with future events and content needs
The Approach
  • Mapped the full festival lifecycle to identify gaps in the existing experience across all four seasonal states
  • Designed in-site overlays for ticketing and membership instead of hard redirects to third-party platforms
  • Built a component library to ensure visual consistency and support future content updates
  • Extended the existing brand with more polish and visual consistency across all page types

New Site Map

Old Site

DESIGN SYSTEM

Full-Page Designs

DESIGN THAT FEELS AS GOOD AS IT LOOKSWHERE EMPATHY MEETS ELEGANCEDESIGN THAT FEELS AS GOOD AS IT LOOKSWHERE EMPATHY MEETS ELEGANCE DESIGN THAT FEELS AS GOOD AS IT LOOKSWHERE EMPATHY MEETS ELEGANCEDESIGN THAT FEELS AS GOOD AS IT LOOKSWHERE EMPATHY MEETS ELEGANCE
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