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Content
While the SF Symphony had an enormous volume of content on its existing site, locating and translating information relevant for an individual user was difficult and unwieldy. Reorganizing the information in an intuitive way and reducing it into more manageable, easy to understand pieces that effectively convey the vibrant Symphony experience was key.

-- Developed intertwined sections including content which features composer biographies, upcoming events, event details, program information, music clips, series information, performance dates and times, and any additional ticketing or performance information
-- Integrated third party content (the Grove Music Dictionary) to add depth to the site

Information Architecture/User Interface
One of the Symphony's primary goals was to move site visitors to an action -- purchase an individual ticket, purchase a season of tickets, donate money to the symphony, or volunteer their personal time -- but those goals needed to be promoted in an unobtrusive way. 415 designed an information architecture and user interface that privileges the Symphony's needs while respecting users.

-- Designed a means of funneling users through the site that uses information to motivate action at every level
-- Maintained standard navigation menus, while at the same time created a content organization that caters to the human tendency to explore organically rather than cycle through menus
-- Enabled visitors to retain an understanding of their location with a site-wide combination global and sub-navigation system
-- Created a navigation that facilitates immediate access to variety of site information, including specific events (Calendar of Events), purchase tickets (Tickets and Other Purchases), or ways to donate time and/or money (How to Get Involved)

Flash
Because the music itself is essential to the San Francisco Symphony experience, 415 developed an audio player in Flash that allows site users to sample over 60 years of audio recordings while moving throughout the site.

-- Enhanced action-oriented site goals by combining music clips with pop-up messaging containing relevant information
-- Linked the audio player to more information about the composer or performers, and ticket purchasing if the piece will be featured in any upcoming events
-- Surmounted copyright restrictions with a proprietary ‘music librarian'
-- Enabled future functionality to allow site visitors to load a number of music clips into the player and listen to them even if they've closed their browser window

Special Events Marketing
In June of 2000 the Symphony approached 415 to create a mini-site for the American Mavericks Festival, a unique three-week long event dedicated to American composers and musicians who pushed the boundaries of music in the 20th Century. The site was such a success, the San Francisco Symphony enlisted 415 in the creation of mini-marketing sites for other programs including their annual Black and White Ball, and the Russian Music Festival.

Technology
The previous site was built using static, hard-coded Web pages; due to the incredibly complicated nature of the ticketing and subscription process and the vast wealth of information about the music, musicians, and performance venues available online, 415 understood that the site should be generated dynamically, using a relational database.

-- Architected template-based, dynamic content solution
-- Created custom content management system (CMS)
-- Ensured that current system can be easily upgradeable to full-blown database backend

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