CFMU, McMaster University’s campus radio station, came to us with a vision: to be the “voice of the community”. This meant not only connecting with McMaster’s community, but with the entire city of Hamilton. They wanted to establish a new brand to reflect their new vision, as well as a new website that would become Hamilton’s go-to media hub.
This request came with a fair share of challenges. CFMU’s audience is incredibly diverse; however, they can be broken down generally into two main groups: artistically-inclined Hamiltonians who are civically engaged and community-minded, as well as the McMaster students themselves. With live and recorded audio being the primary reason users were currently visiting the website, we also had to consider audio functionality that followed the user throughout their visit. This required a solution that would allow a user to explore the site while seamlessly continuing their on-air live streams, archived podcasts or video content. Finally, we had to account for a team of volunteer hosts with varying skills in web and design that needed access to the CMS, as well as uphold website design integrity utilizing strict brand guidelines. This was essential to ensure the desired consistency of user experience across the entire website.