From the first moment I met the team at Tactile Images, I knew we would get along and make something beautiful. Their company touches on several things that are important to me: art, museums, accessibility, and creating a more equitable world. They make three-dimensional, tactilely interactive exhibitions for blind and visually-impaired people—and anyone else who wants to experience art through touch.

Our task was to update their brand and redesign their website, making their mission and impact the hero story. In designing this site, it was highly important to consider all kinds of users, including those with visual impairments who may use screen readers and other accessibility tools. My team developed a positioning that focused on the concept of illumination, a metaphor for sight that captures both the visual and cerebral. This concept informed the visual identity of the website and helped direct the copy, ensuring that we used inclusive language throughout the brand and UX writing. An interesting aspect of this project included avoiding any sight-based language, such as “See more” or “Watch the video”, in order to be accessible and friendly to visually-impaired users.

I supplemented audience testimonials with my own research, auditing other companies that provide services to the blind and visually impaired. Understanding our audience and sharing those insights with my team was crucial to the success of the project.

Tactile Images wanted to appeal to museum directors who would consider commissioning tactile images for their exhibits, so initial research centered on evaluating websites and services within the museum industry. We wanted the Tactile Images website to feel familiar yet innovative, future-facing but grounded in immediate human impact.

Initial designs were created using the Modulus design system I had built, which was ideal for this project timeline of only a few weeks. This also allowed me to create more high-fidelity wireframes with dummy content so that the client could more easily digest and sign off on designs.

Post-launch, the work increased web traffic by 27%, with time spent on the site increasing by 19% and driving a 34% increase in customer leads in the first quarter after launch.

This work has since won two W3 awards for Website Features Best Visual Appeal - Utility and General Websites - Art.