Sound Of Wonder

Project Details

Sound of Wonder is a music-focused website for fans who are not tech natives. The original site had accessibility issues. It was hard for users with dyslexia and mobile visitors to read and navigate.

I redesigned the site to make it more accessible and easier to use on all devices.

An old friend with a website that was not working for him

Scooby and I have been mates for years. He knew what I did before he ever asked me to help. One day he offered me the job of looking after the website for his show, Sound of Wonder. We have since gone on to co-found Harrogate Community Radio together, so this one project turned into something much bigger.

He was straight with me from the start. He told me he has dyslexia, and that the site was not working for him. Not as a technical complaint. As someone trying to use his own website and finding it hard going.

That mattered to me more than any audit could. If the site does not work for the person whose name is on it, it does not work.

What was actually wrong

A look at the site turned up the kind of problems that sound small on paper but make a real difference day to day:

• Text was hard to read against some of the backgrounds.
• Pages were busy, with too much going on at once.
• Keyboard navigation did not work consistently.
• Images had no proper alt text.
• The mobile version felt slow and awkward to use.

None of these are dramatic on their own. Together, for someone with dyslexia, they add up to a site that takes more effort than it should.

What I did

I rebuilt the site in WordPress with one job in mind: make it easier to read and easier to use, for Scooby and for everyone else.

That meant stronger contrast between text and background. Calmer pages with less clutter. Clear headings and proper spacing, so the structure of a page is obvious at a glance. Keyboard navigation that actually works the whole way through. Real alt text on every image, not blank ones left over from the old build. And a mobile layout built from scratch rather than squeezed in afterwards.

I checked the work against WCAG 2.2 standards as I went, not just at the end. Catching a problem halfway through a build is a lot cheaper than catching it after launch.

What changed

I do not have analytics figures from this one to point to. What I have is Scooby telling me the site is easier for him to read and use now, which matters more to me than a bounce rate.

The bigger result is the one that did not fit in a spec at the start. This project led to a friendship turning into a working partnership, and that partnership became Harrogate Community Radio.

What I would do differently

Push harder for feedback. Scooby is a good mate, and good mates are not always good critics. He would tell me something looked fine when I needed more than that to go on. Next time I would ask more direct questions, rather than take a quick yes at face value.