Edinburgh International Festival has a new e-commerce website.
The new site was designed to immerse visitors in upcoming performances at the festival, which runs from August 8 to 31, while making it easy for them to book.
It was built by digital agency Realise to be fully responsive, using Drupal CMS, in such a way that users get the same experience whether they come to the site through a desktop, tablet or smartphone.
“With EIF, we wanted to raise the bar for festival sites,” said Don Smith, executive creative director at Realise. “To push the boundaries in terms of how the site looked and how it functioned. The simple user interface allows the visual content to steal the spotlight and draw people in. key to the design are the high-impact images that are almost too big to fit the screen. Like the larger-than-life feeling of being in the front row.”
Features include Calendar View, with a visual schedule that visitors can use to plan their time, a cookie-based My Festival wish list, and an Inspire Me section. A homepage changes with the seasons, bringing transactions to the fore in the live season, from March to September.
Festival director Sir Jonathan Mills said: “With visitors flocking to the Festival from all over the world it is very important to us that they have the best possible digital experience on the move and on a variety of devices.
“The new site really captures the spirit of the Festival with a more dynamic, experiential and visual look and feel showcasing our artists and the diversity of our work in an exciting way. We are both delighted that Realise undertook this challenge with us and thank them for their support of the Festival as its website partner.”
