Design study · Downtown development authority · Michigan
The district on its own clock, dinner to last call
A downtown authority website concept designed around the hours the district is actually busy, rather than the hours an office is open.
Concept only. Facts come from the authority's published materials; this is not the official Downtown Royal Oak website.
- Downtown district website
- WordPress theme
- Business directory
- Parking wayfinder
- Social District
- Omnibox search
Downtown Royal Oak — open the working site
Case study overview
The problem
A downtown development authority's website is usually built like an economic development brochure — board minutes, façade grant programs, business attraction — while the people actually using it are deciding where to eat tonight and where to park. The visitor arrives on a phone, in the evening, already downtown or nearly there, and the site is organized for a completely different reader.
The approach
The district is presented on its own clock, from dinner to last call, which reorganizes everything: 217 real businesses in the authority's own categories rather than generic listings, a park-once wayfinder with live garage guidance because parking is the actual friction, and the Social District given a real explanation since a visitor holding a drink outdoors needs to know the boundaries. An omnibox answers in plain words, so someone can ask where to park for a specific restaurant instead of navigating a parking page. The authority's institutional content still exists; it simply stops occupying the front page.
The result
A 243-page build on a real WordPress theme covering 217 businesses, parking with live garage guidance, the Social District, and a plain-language omnibox.
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