Case Study · Website Redesign
Website Redesign for a Community Choir in Michigan
Client: The Novi Choralaires - founded 1975
A full website redesign and members-only portal for a fifty-year-old Michigan choir. Built to recruit new singers, recognize patrons, and finally give current members a private place to work from.
● Client
The Novi Choralaires / Community Choir,
Michigan
● Scope
12 pages + members portal +
Ongoing maintenance
● My Role
Designer, Developer
& Project Manager
● Project Type
Full redesign & members
area build
The Challenge
Fifty years of, excellence a website that didn't show it.
The Novi Choralaires has been part of the Michigan choral community since 1975 — fifty active singers, more than two hundred concerts performed, a real reputation for musical quality. Their website was the one thing that did not match the standing of the organization. Dated visual design, no mobile layout, no way for current members to access rehearsal materials without manual distribution, and audition language that may have been quietly discouraging the kind of singers they wanted to attract.
For a community choir, the website does a lot of jobs at once. It is how prospective singers decide whether to audition. It is how patrons decide whether to give. It is how the community finds the next concert. And — easily underestimated — it is the working hub for the active members, the place rehearsal schedules and sheet music live between Tuesday nights.
The board needed all four jobs done well, on a focused budget, with an ongoing maintenance plan after launch so the site would not slowly age out again.
The Approach
A redesign with four jobs to do.
The strategy work happened in board meetings before any design started. We agreed on what each page had to accomplish, what content was worth holding for a second phase, and a few specific language choices that turned out to matter a lot. Then I designed and built it.
01
A Site That Looks Its Age, In a Good Way
A restrained visual system built around the choir's heritage: a navy anchor with a single ember accent, classical serif headings paired with a clean modern body face, photography-led layouts with real white space. Dignity over decoration.
02
A Friendlier Path to Joining
The audition page was one of the quieter blockers to growth. We replaced "audition" language with "Friendly Voice Placement" and restructured the Join page into three clear steps — a small change in words that made a real difference in how welcoming the page feels.
03
A Real Structure
A site rebuilt around the four jobs it actually has to do — bring in new singers, welcome patrons, surface the next concert, and tell the fifty-year story properly. Every page earning its place, with clear paths in for prospective members, donors, and the wider community.
The Work
Before and After.
The old homepage on the left, the new one on the right. Same choir, same fifty years of work behind it — finally a site that shows it.
the outcome
A presence that matches the choir.
The redesigned Novi Choralaires website does what the old one could not. The fifty-year history is finally told properly. Concert listings are easy to find and easy to share. Patron tiers are recognized publicly. The Join page reads as welcoming instead of intimidating. And current members have a real home base — a private portal that ends the era of manual email distribution and lets the board focus on running a choir instead of running a filing cabinet.
The bigger result is structural. The website is no longer the weakest part of the organization. A community choir competing for singers, audiences, and patrons in a busy market needs every touchpoint to look like the real thing — and now this one does. The ongoing maintenance plan means it will stay that way.
"Outstanding work, reasonable pricing: a great combination. Shrimp Boat built us a beautiful, well-functioning website with nothing but delighted reviews from users."
Chester Roaden
Treasurer - Novi Choralaires · novichoralaires.com
Thinking about a website for your choir, arts group, or non-profit?
If you run a community choir, arts organization, or small non-profit and your website has stopped doing the organization justice, the approach here works for most groups in that space: dignified design, a clear path for new members and patrons, and a real private area for the people doing the work. You can read more about how I work, see the rest of the portfolio, or read on the blog about why most non-profit websites underperform.
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Every project starts with a conversation – a chance to learn about your goals, your business, and what you’d like your online presence to say about you. From there, I guide you through a clear, creative process that makes building your website simple, collaborative, and stress-free.