Ancient Plovdiv UX/UI transformation

Role

User Interface Design, User Research, Interaction, Prototyping & Testing, Information Architecture

Period

May - August 2025

Project Overview

The Ancient Plovdiv Municipal Institute manages and preserves cultural heritage within the Plovdiv architectural reserve.

Their existing website was outdated, visually inconsistent, and difficult to navigate. It lacked mobile responsiveness, relied heavily on ornamental graphics, and failed to reflect the Institute’s newly established brand identity. As a result, users struggled to find essential information, reducing engagement and credibility.

During my internship, I redesigned the Institute’s digital interface with a focus on usability, accessibility, and cohesive branding (homepages shown below). By restructuring the information architecture and introducing a responsive, accessible design system, the redesign modernizes the Institute’s online presence while respecting its cultural mission.

Impact: approximately 25–30% faster task completion, unified booking flow, fully responsive and accessible redesign for cultural tourism.

You can explore the prototypes here:

More details follow.

Understanding the Problem

A full audit of the existing website revealed critical issues:

cluttered pages
confusing information hierarchy
inconsistent visuals
no mobile support

Usability testing showed that users struggled to locate essential information such as visiting hours, news updates, and site locations. Accessibility problems (page structure, lack of alt text, color contrast problems, etc.) further limited engagement and made the interface difficult for older visitors to use.

Through early interviews with municipal stakeholders, I learned that the website played a key role in cultural tourism, yet failed to communicate the institute’s mission or modern brand identity. A snippet of the original homepage is included underneath for reference.

Problem statement: How might we modernize the digital experience to improve usability and accessibility while preserving the institute’s cultural character?

Research & Insights

To understand user needs and align design decisions with real behavior, I conducted:

Usability testing on the existing site with tourists, locals, and cultural professionals
Stakeholder interviews to clarify business needs and objectives
Content audit to identify underlying issues and outdated information
Comparative analysis of other cultural institutions for best practices - e.g. European capital websites that focus on promoting tourism

Key insights:

Users struggled to locate essential information quickly due to unclear information architecture.
The navigation was overwhelming - e.g. "Documents" and "Applications" in main navigation bar
Mobile access was a primary need for tourists
The visuals felt ornamental and outdated rather than helpful and aesthetically effective
Lack of the newly establised brand identity seen across other channels caused inconsistency and weakened credibility

Note:

A separate external website (seen below) with a completely different visual identity was used for ticket booking, forcing users to switch between platforms and increasing cognitive load. After discussing this with stakeholders, the final solution unified the “Old Plovdiv” website and the booking flow into a single system. This reduced friction, eliminated redundant interfaces, and allowed users to complete tasks within one coherent experience.

These insights guided the redesign toward clarity, usability, and stronger brand alignment.

Designing the initial solution & iteration

I began by restructuring the information architecture to reduce cognitive load and ease navigation, sketched in low-fidelity wireframes (part of "Home" and "Sites" seen below). Clearer categorization and orgnaization helped in identification of essential content more intuitively.

From there, I moved into mid-fidelity layouts to establish a base. I developed a design system inspired by the updated brand identity that graphic designers had established. I incorporated a clean typographic structure, accessible color contrasts, and reusable components.

Then, I created an "MVP design" of both mobile and desktop (included only the pages in the navigation), which I tested with a few potential users and evaluated with stakeholders before expanding to the full design. As a follow-up to that, I iterated the design, drawing on some insights from the initial testing.

The following changes were implemented:

Adjusted some spacings.
Simplified certain content blocks - fewer details on calendar events in order to highlight only the most important info.
Added a calendar selector on the events page to simplify interaction by letting users focus on a single date rather than scroll through all the events, seen below.
Split the "Sites" page into two sections - "Ancient" and "Renaissance" in order to differentiate sites based on user interests and simplify interaction - low-fidelity wireframe seen below.

Then, I designed the entire interface with all necessary elements and flows of the website. After completing it, I prototyped it.

Further testing & last iterations

Usability testing of the full prototype involved both tourists and local residents. Participants completed tasks such as finding opening hours, booking tickets, browsing attractions, and locating contact information.

Results:

Users found key information significantly faster
Faster task completion (approximately 25-30% reduction)
Fewer navigation errors
Clearer content hierarchy
A more modern and trustworthy visual impression

The final interactive prototype presents a modern yet culturally aligned interface: spacious layouts, intuitive navigation, cohesive branding, and full responsiveness across devices.

You can also explore the prototypes here:

Outcomes & Learnings

Although the redesign has not yet been implemented, pre-launch testing demonstrated clear improvements: reduced task steps, approximately 25-30% faster task completion, improved accessibility compliance, and strong mobile usability.

The municipality publicly acknowledged the project on their Facebook and Instagram channels, validating its alignment with institutional goals.

Key learnings:

Early stakeholder involvement ensures alignment between user needs and business objectives
Testing at every stage quickly surfaces usability issues
Designing for cultural institutions requires sensitivity to history, storytelling, and public trust

This project strengthened my ability to design modern, accessible systems within established brand and institutional constraints.