Two become one
In order to unify all its assets under one strong brand, WABE (formerly Public Broadcasting Atlanta) sought to consolidate and represent its many distribution channels into a single unified media experience: WABE.org.
Leveraging our background in designing and building websites for some of the largest media brands in the U.S., we created a site where original and NPR radio clips, podcasts, PBS television episodes, and the latest news content all fit together into a seamless user experience.
Testimonial
IfThen brought extensive experience to the project that helped WABE articulate what we wanted from a new site. Once the goals were set, IfThen’s broad capabilities and detailed process translated to a disciplined approach to designing and building the site, transitioning us to the new platform with minimal impact on our internal staff and day to day responsibilities. The end product positions us to execute on our strategic plan though this new digital hub that is both visually appealing and highly functional.
Scott Woelfel, Chief Content Officer, WABE
Capabilities
Strategy
UX
Interaction and motion design
Front-end development
QA testing
Data migration from multiple media sites
News, podcast, radio and television feed integrations from NPR and PBS
Training
Our approach
1. The user experience was optimized for a large mobile audience that streams audio throughout the day.
2. A persistent audio player was created to support live streaming without interruption as the user moves from page to page on both desktop and mobile.
3. A massive archive of previous news stories and associated assets were migrated and managed to support ongoing grooming to reduce storage volume.
4. Feeds for NPR stories, PBS TV episodes, and WABE podcasts and radio shows were automated to coincide with air times on radio and television shows.
5. Data for hundreds of thousands of existing news stories, TV episodes, radio/podcast clips, authors, and events were migrated into the new CMS.
6. And the authoring experience was simplified to support a more distributed publishing model.
Deliverables
Competitive assessment
Analytics and SEO analysis
User personas
Site strategy
User experience
User testing
Visual design
Motion and interaction studies
Style guide
HTML, CSS, and JS front-end build
Wordpress development
Quality assurance testing
About WABE
Location
Atlanta, GA
Sector
Radio and television media
Awards
2021 Four regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for reporting, storytelling and journalistic excellence
Number of employees
200
Founded
1960