Seattle Asian American Film Festival Website Redesign
Founded in 1985 by KingStreet Media—a grassroots Asian American media collective in Seattle’s International District—the Seattle Asian American Film Festival emerged as a bold new platform for Asian American storytelling. Over the years, it has gone through several iterations and now operates as a thriving, community-driven nonprofit that continues to champion independent Asian American voices. Today, SAAFF remains committed to uplifting underrepresented stories and building bridges across generations, cultures, and communities through film.
PROBLEM: Due to frequent leadership transitions over the years, the website had fallen into disrepair. Festival-goers found it difficult to navigate, potential sponsors questioned SAAFF’s credibility as a nonprofit, and staff struggled to update or add content efficiently.
As a team of eight volunteers, we collaborated closely to deliver a more user-friendly website, applying the full UX design lifecycle — from research and strategy, workshops, design, testing, and implementation in time for their festival in June 2025.
SAAFF’s old website
PROCESS: We began by conducting user research with past festival attendees to identify key issues with the existing website — many cited poor navigation and inaccessible color choices. From there, we evaluated hosting platforms, comparing WordPress for its customization (but steep learning curve) and Squarespace for its ease of use (but limited flexibility). Ultimately, we prioritized a balance between usability and maintainability for staff.
Survey affinity board on FigJam
With several volunteers either recently graduated or in their first design roles, the project became a valuable learning opportunity, creating space for workshops and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.
Lo-fi design studio
Based on interviews and research findings, the UX team conducted a lofi design studio to quickly iterate ideas for key pages.
Wireframes and mockups on Figma
I began laying out the basics for the wireframes for key pages to be created for the festival keeping in mind that we will be launching the MVP for the Festival. Everyone filed in and added to the designs.
My main focus was the homepage.
After much deliberation with the developers and deadlines coming up, we decided to go with Squarespace for it’s templated features and ease of use for non-technical users.
Post 2025 festival homepage
RESULTS: 82% of festival-goers used the website on a mobile device to view the schedule and plan ahead.
With more information and clarity provided, users spent the most time on the festival homepage for an average of 1:15 minutes — a 15% increase. While the schedule page received the most views — a 30% increase.
NEXT STEPS: With the data collected, we will be improving the mobile experience and adding additional pages to improve SAAFF’s credibility. In phase 2, we are revamping the sponsorship page, filmmakers resources and the archival pages to highlight and showcase the progress and growth of SAAFF over the span of 13 years.