The Society of Motion Picture and Television, or SMPTE as it is known to most people, is an influential organization that standardize all of the engineering specs for television and film. With more than 10,000 pages worth of content and 7,000 + active members this project was a massive undertaking.
As the lead designer, I am responsible for all of the web page designs as well as the user flow and experience of section.
The main challenge with this project was to re-imagine SMPTE’s branding to create an experience that engaged with SMPTE’s younger audience, without alienating its legacy audience. SMPTE wanted a young fresh vibe, but its core members are engineers between the ages of 40-65, so the new design needed to stick to familiar UX conventions.
I created a design language based around their iconic color bar chart that calibrate video recording equipment. It is a simple graphic that utilizes all of SMPTE’s brand colors and was already an instantly recognizable image.
By re-imaging this graphic I was able to connect SMPTE’s legacy to the young up-starts they desired to attract.
SMPTE’s main goal was to increase membership, so the homepage needed to convince each new user that a SMPTE membership was worth the money. Through diligent research I discovered that the most compelling information were SMPTE's countless accomplishments, which includes 9 Emmy Awards, 1 Oscar, and over 7,000 membership base.
Heavily inspired by infographics I laid out their statistical information in a zig-zag formation to demonstrate SMPTE’s prominence in the engineering field and to draw the user’s eye down the page.
Since the launch of their home page, I have emerged with a solid framework that will positively affect the additional work in this agile, iterative process.
I am currently designing SMPTE's store experience and user interface.