PorchFest

We are partnering with Historic Athens Porchfest, a community-driven event organized by the
non-profit Historic Athens, which transforms front porches across seven neighborhoods into
intimate concert stages. Porchfest celebrates local live music and strengthens community
connection through accessible, walkable entertainment. Our focus is on improving the mobile-first experience for event attendees, ensuring they can easily navigate performances, artists, and neighborhoods. We will also address inconsistencies in how event information is presented across the organization’s multiple platforms. In addition, we will improve how Historic Athens faculty and staff pair porches with bands, a process that becomes increasingly complex as the event grows.

Attendees currently experience frustration due to complex navigation and inconsistent
information, especially when trying to locate artists, porches, and schedules on the day of the
event. While the existing website is functional, it lacks an intuitive user flow and smooth
integration with digital tools and volunteer-managed updates. Through our user research and brand audit, we discovered that information posted on Instagram was not always reflected on the website, creating confusion and frustration for users. This highlights the need to streamline content across platforms and communication channels.

Additionally, through multiple meetings with our client, a significant concern surfaced: the growing challenge of pairing bands with porches. This time-consuming, manual process becomes more difficult every year. Historic Athens will share their current pairing workflow with us so that we can evaluate it and identify opportunities for improvement. These issues create significant opportunities to streamline communication, improve accessibility, and help the organization scale the festival more efficiently.

Our proposed solution is to redesign and prototype a cohesive, mobile-first digital experience
using Figma, prioritizing clarity, consistency, and ease of navigation. By consolidating essential
event details and optimizing the user experience, attendees will be able to explore Porchfest
intuitively and without frustration.

We will collaborate with a Porchfest volunteer who currently helps manage the organization’s digital platforms to ensure our design aligns with their existing infrastructure. Key components of our solution include: a redesigned website experience with a clear, consistent information structure across all platforms, a quiz feature that suggests a personalized event route with band locations, times, and neighborhood details, a streamlined content strategy, including naming conventions and a recommended platform for storing graphics, media, and assets, and an audit of the current band-porch pairing process, followed by actionable recommendations to reduce manual effort and support long-term scalability.