Two become one.
WABE Hero

WABE

In order to unify all its assets under one strong brand, WABE — formerly Public Broadcasting Atlanta — sought to consolidate and represent its many distribution channels into a single unified media experience.
A person showing the WABE app.

Our Approach

Leveraging our background in designing and building websites for some of the largest media brands in the U.S., we created a site where original and NPR radio clips, podcasts, PBS television episodes, and the latest news content all fit together into a seamless user experience.
  1. The user experience was optimized for a large mobile audience that streams audio throughout the day.
  2. A persistent audio player was created to support live streaming without interruption as the user moves from page to page on both desktop and mobile.
  3. A massive archive of previous news stories and associated assets were migrated and managed to support ongoing grooming to reduce storage volume.
  4. Feeds for NPR stories, PBS TV episodes, and WABE podcasts and radio shows were automated to coincide with air times on radio and television shows.
  5. Data for hundreds of thousands of existing news stories, TV episodes, radio/podcast clips, authors, and events were migrated into the new CMS.
  6. The authoring experience was simplified to support a more distributed publishing model.
WABE mobile design
The WABE website on a laptop.
WABE media variety
WABE schedule
A screenshot of the WABE search experience.

Capabilities

  • Strategy
  • User Experience
  • Graphic Design
  • Interaction and Motion Design
  • Front-end Development
  • QA Testing
  • Data Migration from Multiple Media Sites
  • News, Podcast, Radio and Television Feed Integrations from NPR and PBS
  • Training

 

Deliverables

  1. Competitive Assessment
  2. Analytics and SEO Analysis
  3. User Personas
  4. Site Strategy
  5. User Experience
  6. User Testing
  7. Visual Design
  8. Figma Design System
  9. Motion and Interaction Studies
  10. Style Guide
  11. HTML, CSS, and JS Front-end Build
  12. Wordpress Development
  13. Quality Assurance Testing

 

The Client

WABE was awarded four regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for reporting, storytelling and journalistic excellence in 2021.

IfThen brought extensive experience to the project that helped WABE articulate what we wanted from a new site. Once the goals were set, IfThen’s broad capabilities and detailed process translated to a disciplined approach to designing and building the site, transitioning us to the new platform with minimal impact on our internal staff and day to day responsibilities. The end product positions us to execute on our strategic plan though this new digital hub that is both visually appealing and highly functional.

— Scott Woelfel, Chief Content Officer, WABE
About the Project
  • Client WABE
  • Location Atlanta, GA
  • Founded 1960
  • Sector Media
  • Employees 200
Services
Engagement Lead

Visit the Website
www.wabe.org