Esplanade’s new website creates awareness of and gives access to experiences on stage and online offered by Singapore’s national performing arts centre.
SINGAPORE, 26 September 2022 – In line with Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay’s social mission to make the arts more accessible to everyone, GrowthOps partnered with Singapore’s national performing arts centre to refresh its website by enhancing its user experience as the performing arts makes a comeback in the wake of the pandemic.
Esplanade’s new website aims to give a better digital experience to both performing arts aficionados and those new to the arts, while creating awareness about the not-for-profit organisation and its wide range of arts performances and activities, which tally as much as 3,500 a year, and of which, 70% are free to the public.
GrowthOps revamped the website to make it seamless and enjoyable for performing arts lovers to experience Esplanade’s wide range of offerings—from discovering new events and booking tickets to experiencing and learning more about the arts digitally through the Esplanade Offstage microsite. These were done to help position Esplanade as a leading digital performing arts platform, which ultimately will help build affinity and develop audiences for the performing arts.
“Since 2019, GrowthOps has been a committed digital partner of Esplanade. This new website offers improved user experience and accessibility, and a more efficient content management workflow. This is timely as we celebrate the arts centre’s 20th birthday in October 2022. We will continue to enhance our website as it serves as a gateway to engage and serve audiences even more effectively,” said Eunice Yap, Chief Marketing Officer, The Esplanade Co Ltd.
“GrowthOps is honoured to be a part of the new chapter of Esplanade’s colourful story—that of bringing arts closer to Singaporeans by making it accessible via a more engaging and interactive digital platform,” said Chee Hung Goon, CEO of GrowthOps Asia. “Through the updated website, we hope to inspire Singaporeans to see art ‘in a new light’ at Esplanade and provide a platform for artists and their expressions to flourish and be appreciated as they get back onstage after being in hiatus amidst the pandemic.”
Linking Esplanade onstage and offstage
The seeds for this update were sown well before the break caused by the pandemic, when three years ago the Esplanade developed Esplanade Offstage, a growing repository of videos, stories, podcasts and resources about the performing arts and culture in Singapore and Asia. The site’s objective is to demystify the arts for newcomers, including families, children, schools and researchers.
One decision is to create a seamless journey between Esplanade.com and Esplanade Offstage. Specifically, the digital assets on Esplanade.com are the keys to open the doors to not only the actual Esplanade stages, but also online performances and behind-the-scenes content on Offstage.
The paradigm taken is that art spaces are more than just a neutral space for performance. The three key principles of “walk, look and remember” are an essential part of the experience, and all throughout, the audience is guided along the way to the actual show.
Arts accommodating the needs of differently abled groups
Taking accessibility to the arts one step further, the new website aims to be easily accessible to anyone and everyone by attaining AA level accessibility for acceptable compliance. This is embedded into GrowthOps’ design process from talking to family members of persons with disabilities or those with special needs to utilising a third-party tool. This ensures that the website adheres to the AA level of accessibility during the wireframing or visual design creation, all the way to validating the designs with persons with disabilities.
Events planning integrated with website platform
From an operations standpoint, integrating the events planning platform with the website has allowed Esplanade staff to focus on developing content, rather than the technical details of how to update the website. The entire website is built on Sitecore 10, a composable digital experience platform that GrowthOps has partnered and delivered on since 2004.
The current website is a step towards making performing arts accessible to all. By creating awareness of the events in and around Esplanade, both free and paid, Esplanade’s new website aims to attract new audiences and deepen Singaporeans’ appreciation of the arts, through participation, membership, volunteerism and philanthropy.
