Melbourne Recital Centre

Melbourne Recital Centre’s legacy website had remained largely unchanged for a decade, falling behind in accessibility, performance, and usability. The challenge was to create a future-focused platform that reflected MRC’s new brand identity, improved the digital user experience, and supported a vast and diverse event program. Bravo needed to balance multiple stakeholder needs, integrate complex ticketing pathways, and design for a wide range of audiences, including those with accessibility requirements. Key hurdles included designing a fully accessible Select Your Own Seat (SYOS) tool, optimising for mobile users, and ensuring the platform could adapt seamlessly within Melbourne’s dynamic Arts Precinct context

Studio Bravo’s solution centred on collaboration, accessibility, and brand articulation. Rigorous stakeholder engagement and audience research informed the creation of an intuitive, visually rich interface that simplified event discovery and ticketing. The team designed a custom SYOS tool with accessibility at its core and implemented dynamic event page theming to align event imagery with colour palettes, enhancing visual storytelling. The checkout process was overhauled for clarity and ease, offering guest checkout and reducing transaction friction. The design system delivered flexibility and consistency, empowering MRC to maintain brand expression across devices while supporting ongoing growth and operational needs.

The redesigned Melbourne Recital Centre website has transformed the digital experience for audiences and staff alike. Faster load times, intuitive navigation, and a frictionless checkout journey have eliminated bottlenecks and reduced customer friction. The accessible SYOS tool and access filters have improved inclusivity for audiences with additional needs. The new site enables storytelling without reliance on separate microsites. The platform supports seamless donations and ticket sales, contributing to MRC’s commercial success. The result is a design-led digital experience that brings the vibrancy and sophistication of the live performance space into the online realm, supporting MRC’s future ambitions.

The Melbourne Recital Centre website delivers an elegant, design-led user experience that balances beauty and functionality. Key features include: - Custom-designed Select Your Own Seat (SYOS) tool, built from the ground up with accessibility and usability at its core, enabling an intuitive ticket purchasing experience for all audiences. - Dynamic event page theming, where colours are drawn from event imagery to create a visually cohesive and immersive brand experience. - Streamlined checkout flow, including the introduction of guest checkout and a simplified multi-step process to reduce friction and increase conversions. - Accessibility-first approach, with compliance to WCAG standards, the inclusion of event access filters, and optimised navigation for all users. - Highly flexible homepage carousel and event listings, enabling the MRC team to easily promote events, upsell related concerts, and enhance audience discovery. - New content hub for news, providing a platform to tell artist stories and Centre news without relying on external microsites, ensuring a seamless user journey. - Dramatically improved performance, including faster load times and increased stability, reducing the need for virtual waiting rooms even during peak traffic periods. The result is a contemporary, scalable digital experience that reflects Melbourne Recital Centre’s position as a leader in arts and culture.