When Primitive began this project with Downtown LBK (DLBK)and the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance (LEDA), that is what they wanted this project to communicate to the Hub City.
“We want people to know downtown is thriving, and we want businesses to see the growth and join in the effort to continue to revitalize downtown.”
The Prim Pack is made up of several Lubbock natives. We’ve also worked with DLBK and worked in downtown for many years, so this was a passion project for us. We knew this would be a website we could bring innovation, imagination, and whimsy to–and that’s always exciting when you work across industries.
From the start, we knew this project would challenge our creativity and create a space on the internet that genuinely meant something to a community we cherish.
We’re sharing a behind-the-scenes view of the Downtown LBK website.
Collectively, the Primitive and LEDA team members working on this project wanted the site to be a comprehensive look at Downtown Lubbock–a place to find information on every aspect of life in DLBK. This meant creating space for downtown’s history, easy-to-find events, information for people interested in living or opening a business in the area, and a place to easily filter through the businesses you can visit and support.
We also wanted the site to be content-centric. People living in and visiting Lubbock needed easy access to blog posts that helped them find delicious food and fun drinks, unique activities to enjoy, and a map of the area's art scene.
Media also needed to be heavily incorporated to provide a visual representation of what Downtown Lubbock has to offer. This meant beautiful images and videos specifically shot and edited for the website and user-generated content that gave even more of a first-person perspective into downtown.
Finally, after site auditing and mapping, it was time to start strategizing, writing, designing, and developing.
Strategy
When building the strategy for the Downtown Lubbock site, we wanted to use information architecture and our knowledge of the user experience to create a fun and effective “flow” to how the visitor would experience the site.
This meant building out the launchpad (or homepage) to include “big ideas” like events, business highlights, and the latest news with a “call-to-action” that would send you to those specific landing pages. From there, the website was expanded to include a more in-depth page for each subject important to the ecosphere that is Downtown Lubbock.
Copy
Downtown Lubbock has always been a favorite account for the Primitive Copy team. The account is casual, friendly, and personal but professional–a change of pace from many other accounts we work on.
When copy started writing for this website, we wanted every word we used to carry weight. The goal was to convey emotion and passion through copy.
To do this, we heavily researched before writing. We let that research, SEO strategies, and our own experiences inform our writing. We communicated our love of the area to those visiting the site.
Using large, impactful headlines and dynamic body copy to keep the user excited, inspired, and interested guides a visitor through the site.
Design
Our design team's approach to DLBK was playful, light, and interactive. Every design element chosen for this site was intentional in its looks and functions.
We expanded the use of colors beyond the brand colors found in their branding guide to bring the playful, contemporary feel to the website that it has. The typefaces brought a dynamic, textured feel to the look of the pages and also played a part in keeping the user engaged and interested.
However, the part of the design we love the most is the hand-drawn notes you’ll find across the site. As much as we use other aspects of web design, like information architecture, to guide a user through a site, we took a much simpler approach here–hand-written instructions.
We didn’t go this route because our strategy is complicated to understand, or we were worried the actions weren’t obvious. It was another way to bring a whimsical, interactive feel to the website. It feels like a Downtown Lubbock community member is walking you through the space hand-in-hand. We think that’s really special.
Development
When it comes to development, the first goal is always to ensure a website opens, loads, and functions seamlessly. Nothing is more frustrating for users than visiting a site with modules or assets that won’t load.
We also had to ensure the site presented well on both desktop and mobile. In today’s day and age, most people are accessing the internet from their phones, so it’s essential that the experience from a mobile device is just as enjoyable as it would be when you’re sitting at a computer.
However, when developers finally got their turn to work on the site, their one major focus beyond functionality was animation. We took the imaginative designs added to the pages and made them move in a way that not only brought joy to the project but also assisted the user in their journey throughout the site.
The calendar or events page was another challenge and success for the development team. The client wanted community members to be able to add their own events, ensuring that every experience in downtown was visible and accessible to the public. Developers made this possible, easy to find and complete, and pooled events by month for easy viewing and organization.
It never hurts to go above and beyond, right?
Through intentional strategy, personal copy, whimsical design, and interactive development, we believe we accomplished what we set out to do with this site. Through collaboration and a whole lot of creativity, we took the spirit, compassion, and diversity of Downtown Lubbock and created a space for it to live on the World Wide Web.
Our proven web design process looks slightly different depending on which client we’re creating for, but we always seem to turn a vision into reality.
If you want a cutting-edge creative agency to bring a little magic to your brand, we’d love to help.