Breaking into UX - one festival at a time

110 Above is a festival close to my heart, championing grassroots music in an intimate 1,000-capacity countryside setting.

Coming back after facing financial challenges, 110 Above needed a refreshed digital experience to ensure its commercial success for years to come, whilst nurturing the passionate community of musicians and supporters who make the festival happen.

I had just started studying my MA in User Experience Design and needed more projects to fill my portfolio. Thinking I was going out on a limb, I tracked down the email of the festival's organiser and sent a short pitch, with some examples of my work.

To my surprise, they said yes! It turned out the festival was being run by a small team without a dedicated designer, on a smaller budget - and they were in need of a simple solution to improve the site that anyone in the team could confidently update.

I chose to continue working in their preferred CMS, Wix. After designing mockups in Figma, I moved into Wix to start constructing the site. I delivered a new sitemap with clearer journeys to find essential information about the festival, and prioritised a mobile-first experience - this is where most of their traffic was, and was sorely neglected on the old site.

The new site has since been maintained by both myself and members of the 110 Above team, working in Wix, updating colours and imagery to accommodate the new graphics associated with each year of the festival.

And importantly… this was the case study I talked through in my interview which landed me my first agency role! This experience was a huge lesson in being proactive at seeking opportunities for professional growth, something I've carried forwards in my attitude towards personal development.