Case study: Fundación ENAIRE
Contemporary art and aeronautical culture come together
You can read this post in Spanish here.
Fundación ENAIRE is a public cultural institution aiming to manage, preserve, and spread Enaire’s artistic heritage, as well as nourish, expand, and boost aeronautical culture in Spanish society.
The foundation found itself in a period of change and transformation in which they refreshed their programming and opened two new headquarters.
The challenge
The main challenge was to build a new website in order to embrace the changes of this new period, and bring together the human side of art and aeronautical innovation within the same website.
The product’s success would also be defined by the development of a clearer, more attractive, and dynamic communication of the foundation’s activities.
The team
The project was carried out by Erretres’ digital team and the strategy team. The workflow was coordinated by our project manager, a key profile who managed the whole process and communication, including the development of the website
My rol in the project
- Desk research in order to understand Fundación Enaire’s needs
- Persona profile and user journey development
- Building an accurate data architecture for the web
- Wireframes and visual design of the final product
Duration
Eight months, including the development of the website.
Digital analysis
A benchmark was made, supported by the strategy team, in order to asses the competitors by their strong points and distinctive characteristics. Whilst the digital team focused on the heuristic subjects, the strategy team focused on the brand strategy.
Empathizing
For this project, the budget and time were very tight and we decided that the best solution to understand the project was to do external an desk research and guerrilla research.
What is external desk research?
An external desk research’s purpose is to collect data from studies and investigations already developed by external players (public institutions, corporations, universities, etc.) which in this case involved studies on audience behavior whilst visiting galleries and other cultural institutions.
And the guerrilla research?
Guerrilla research is an efficient and agile way to generate insights. For this project, we designed an 15-minute interview model for consumers of cultural products. The main goal of this interview was unveil their routines and habits whilst they look for information before visiting cultural institutions. Do they search for detailed information? Do they only look for practical information? Where and how do they get informed on the programme?
Starting with these questions, we obtain qualitative results that let us make decisions regardingthe product’s design.
We also conducted an external observation. The team visited various exhibitions and an awards event in order to dive deep into consumer behavior within the particular framework we were working in.
As we realized that most visitors conceive visiting an exhibition as social entertainment, which is therefore more enjoyable when shared, they usually attend these kind of activities not alone, but in company of others, such as family, friends, etc.
There is also a percentage of visitors who come for informal learning and cultural leisure to satisfy their curiosity.
We distinguished different types of visitors. The following would become the most important in our process:
The fanatic
Intends on visiting both the permanent and temporary exhibitions offered by museums and cultural institutions. They plan their visit and know what they want to see. Rather than a guided visit, they prefer an autonomous one. Plans their time.
Professors
Professors are one of the main target audience for museums and cultural institutions. If the professor is interested in what the museum or exhibition offers, it may lead them to take their students in order to improve their education.
Family
Guided visits and activities for families focussed on learning by having fun are usually offered by cultural institutions.
The expert
Harder to please. They consider themselves an expert and tend to look for mistakes in order to prove their deep knowledge of the subject.
The ocasional visitor
Does not visit exhibitions and museums so often. Has a lack of interest on consume culture. When they do, it is usually due to others’ interests or their own curiosity on a very particular topic.
Strategic definition of the Foundation
As the investigation was developed, the strategy team analysed Fundación Enaire’s brand in order to define a new narrative and communication strategy. The key points were:
- The need to find a niche in order to spread a relevant, disruptive, and long-lasting purpose which is based on an inner truth and able to fit within the various frameworks in which the different potential target audiences move.
- The value proposition should be shaped into a communication concept that performs as a global axis, by being strong and flexible enough to adapt and transform itself according to the channel, topic, and activity of the different communication scenario needs.
- Building a new brand territory that connects with the foundation’s values and the different perspectives towards the territories that already belongs to.
“The web is a third site, it should function as another museum”
Three territories of action were planned: contemporary art, air navigation, and aeronautical industry. After revising the proposal with the client, we focused on two territories:
Contemporary art
Promoting and facilitating an encounter between the art collection and the artist by generating an open dialogue on contemporary art and other topics related to it and to the institution and its goals.
Aeronautical culture
We gather all the viewpoints related to this subject. What is related to the industry, aeronautical development, aeroespacial engineering, and technology; and what is related to humans and their connection with the universe and its elements. We embraced multiple subjects related to the design, manufacturing, development, and innovation, both in the past and the present of this field.
Also, a new communication concept was proposed:
We work to inspire our audience, to broaden their view (curiosity, knowledge, emotion), turning the dream of flying into a reality (both literally and metaphorically).
Personas
We built four persona profiles: the student, the professor, the mother, and the expert.
The fine arts student — Carlos
Enjoys visiting exhibitions as they improve his knowledge as well as thrill him. Defends the idea that the artwork could — and should — speak volumes. Appreciates going to new exhibitions in order to discover new artists, and likes to share the experience with his friends.
The vast array of cultural offerings makes his decision harder. He dismisses the exhibitions he could not find enough information about.
The engineering professor — María
Visits exhibitions in order to improve her knowledge on topics she does not encounter during her daily routine.
Due to her lack of free time, she worries about wasting the little time she has looking for an activity that may not satisfy her expectations. She becomes frustrated if the artworks are not explained to her, especially when it comes to the aeronautical-themed exhibitions.
The mother — Bea
Believes that cultural activities and games could improve her children’s education and knowledge. Conceives the museum as a place for pleasure and relaxation in the company of her family.
The information she needs to plan her visit includes the timesheets, location, and accessibility information, which is sometimes hard to find.
The expert — Luis*
Enjoys visiting an exhibition related to aeronautics as he considers himself an expert. Looks for information related to the topic, and is convinced that aeronautical history should be more well known.
He gets frustrated when an exhibition related to aeronautics has not been curated as he expected. He has been a Fundación Enaire follower for a long time, and he cannot understand why there are more exhibitions about contemporary art than ones related to aviation.
- Some of the expert’s worries could not be solved by the new website as they are more related to the exhibition and the physical space. Regardless, the web could be categorized in order to give the same value to both the art and the aviation exhibitions.
Ideation
After the research was done, multiple stages of ideation were realised to define possible features that could help users on the new website:
- Uniting the contemporary art and the aeronautical content by displaying them together so that they hold the same value. This demonstrates that the programming offers not only art contemporary exhibitions, but also aeronautical-related ones. These could be filtered by the user according to their preferences.
- Displaying the basic information on an exhibition or activity easily and visibly (timesheets, mobility, etc.)
- Provide detailed information about the different exhibitions and activities to quench the thirst of those who are curious before their visit, also offering proof material that can be downloaded.
- Fundación Enaire releases a digital publication (ENARTE magazine) that includes interviews, articles, and foundation updates. At present, it takes the form of a biannual publication that can be downloaded as a PDF. We suggested that this content could be included on the website via a dedicated a section. By creating this, the website could be regularly updated, promoting and diffusing not only its heritage, but also aeronautical culture, positioning Fundación Enaire within the cultural and entertainment environment. We also helped the client’s team to create said content in small doses, avoiding the large task of doing it all at once.
Future User Journeys
During the ideation stage, we developed user journeys to build and test the performance some ideas that came up during the research. What kind of changes could we develop to improve the user experience? Would the new features continue to develop, improving the experience of tomorrow?
Arquitectura de información
A data architecture proposal was designed, tested, and validated via open card sorting with the client. Six main sections were chosen.
Wireframes
Before building the wireframes in Sketch, we arranged the content using sticky notes so that we could make corrections and modifications quickly and easily.
Once the content was arranged, we made the wireframes in Sketch, along with a navigable prototype using InVision which was then shown to the client.
The presentation also included the wireframes which were printed and hung on the wall so that annotations could be made as the client gave feedback.
Look & feel
For this project, the digital team decided to use a colour palette inspired by the colours of land as seen from a birds-eye view.
For ENARTE Magazine, we decided to give it a more editorial look using Noto Serif JP as a body of text and giving it a darker background to differentiate it from the rest of the web.
Visual design
As we already had the real content, the visual design process of the web was easier, as we were able to gauge the amount of text and the images we could use.
Development
We partnered with the development studio Feijoo-Montenegro to bring the website to life. The communication between both parties was highly effective from the off, as we presented the wireframes so that we could discuss any development limits that we should consider.
We included the Sketch file and a UI kit to make their work easier and more agile.
There were many iterations while the web was developed, allowing us to iron out details requested by the client as the project was advancing.
Working with the client
Working alongside Fundación ENAIRE has been a pleasure. The communication with them has always been easy, and they provided us with all the content in advance so that we could work from the very beginning. Their attitude during the workshops was always very positive, by being participative and accepting our advice openly whilst developing their new website. In conclusion, a professional client and a joy to work with.
Thanks!
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