Website Design & Development
Zespół Regionalny – Dolina Popradu
Dolina Popradu is more than a folk band – it’s a living bridge between the past and the future of a region rich in traditions, music, and highland spirit. Our task was to translate that identity into a modern, functional, and emotion-driven digital experience.
Project details
This project was about something much more than building a website. It was about preserving a legacy. The ensemble wanted to finally give their incredible history – full of songs, costumes, and stories – a place to live online. A place where anyone, from curious teenagers to seasoned folk enthusiasts, could explore their world. Where upcoming events could be found with ease, and where the beauty of traditional highland dress and melodies could be appreciated by a global audience.
At its heart, this wasn’t just a digital project. It was the creation of a living archive – one that looks back with pride, and forward with purpose.
Our working process
Research
We began by immersing ourselves in the ensemble’s world – learning their history, values, and audience. Through interviews, cultural research, and content mapping, we laid the foundation for a site that would honor their identity and serve their future.
UI/UX Design
We designed a modern yet soulful experience, blending folklore-inspired visuals with intuitive navigation. Every detail – from patterns to typography – was carefully chosen to feel both authentic and accessible.
Development
We transformed the designs into a fast, responsive website packed with media and meaning. From costumes to concerts, every section was built to grow with the group and welcome visitors from around the world.
🧭 Discovery Phase: Strategy Rooted in Culture
We began where any meaningful collaboration should: by listening.
Our first conversations with the ensemble’s leadership weren’t just about technical specs – they were full of stories, laughter, and the unmistakable “hey hey!” that is part of their identity. We learned about the importance of recruiting young people, promoting events, and preserving rare recordings and costumes that had never lived online before.
We quickly realized this project wasn’t just about visibility. It was about legacy. We began by immersing ourselves in the cultural and emotional landscape of Dolina Popradu. During this phase, we weren’t just defining user flows – we were learning about highland melodies, traditional clothing details, and the “Hey hey!” that echoes in every performance.
Key milestones:
- Stakeholder interviews with ensemble leaders to understand goals and audiences (locals, tourists, youth, institutions)
- Deep cultural research – exploring visual motifs, instruments, language, and historical milestones
- Creation of user personas: event goers, enthusiasts, new recruits, and partners
- Content audit and competitive benchmarking to understand how other cultural groups present themselves
- Development of a feature roadmap including media libraries, event systems, and costume archives
- Planning of tools and workflow to ensure clarity across all collaboration stages
👉 The outcome? A crystal-clear foundation that balanced cultural depth with digital clarity.
✏️ Design Phase: Tradition Meets Usability
From the start, we knew we needed to build something that felt authentic, warm, and accessible. We wanted visitors to feel like they were stepping into a highland gathering, not just browsing a website.
We dived deep into the region’s visual language – the bold patterns, the red and black tones of the “Czarni Górale,” the music that moves like the river. We created moodboards inspired by woven fabrics and old photographs, and carefully selected typography that worked well in both Polish and English.
The design came together like a melody – with rhythm, meaning, and joy.
Designing for all generations. One of our main challenges was to make the site work for everyone:
- The young dancer eager to join.
- The grandparent looking for a photo from 1987.
- The tourist planning their weekend.
- The culture researcher hunting for rare recordings.
We designed clear pathways through the site – whether you’re browsing the timeline of the group’s history, diving into the multimedia archives, or exploring the traditional costume gallery.
We knew the site needed to feel familiar, even to those less experienced with technology. So we kept the layout clean, the text readable, and the actions obvious. Beauty and usability, hand in hand.
The result was a visual language that feels handcrafted and authentic – without looking outdated.
💻 Development Phase: Building for the Long Term
Once the designs were approved (with enthusiastic nods from the team – always a good sign!), we moved into development.
This website wasn’t just a static homepage – it needed to serve as a living, evolving platform. We focused on performance, flexibility, and ease of use for both users and content managers.
While the ensemble’s heart is rooted in the Poprad Valley, their reach goes far beyond the region. Folk culture lovers around the world, Polish diaspora communities, and international festival organizers often seek out groups like this.
That’s why we built the site in two languages – Polish and English – so that everyone can explore, understand, and feel connected.
This was where we made sure the site didn’t just look good, but felt right. We made sure everything loaded fast – even on phones – without losing the richness of the materials.
Highlights:
- Responsive front-end built with a lightweight modern framework
- Custom CMS allowing editors to manage events, media and bilingual content easily
- Multimedia optimization: photos compressed with WebP, lazy loading, audio integration, and video embeds
- Costume section built as a catalog system – not just a gallery
- Timeline module to tell the group’s story in an interactive, scrollable way
- Dual-language support for Polish and English, powered by structured content templates
- SEO & accessibility enhancements including Open Graph tags, semantic HTML, alt texts, and proper heading structures.
We also set up a simple content management system, so the team can update events, media, and pages on their own – no tech skills required and delivered a training session for editors – because the goal wasn’t just launch, but sustainability.
🧩 Final Solution
When the site went live at dolinapopradu.com, it wasn’t just a launch — it was a moment of pride.
The ensemble finally had a digital space worthy of their spirit. A place where their songs, steps, and stories could be discovered, shared, and remembered — not just for today, but for years to come.
And for us? It was one of those projects that reminds you why you build things in the first place.
The finished site is a cultural portal – modern, responsive, and deeply personal. It blends strong design, solid engineering, and cultural respect into one flexible product that will grow with the ensemble.
Features include:
🎻 Event page with past/future calendar
🎞️ Multimedia hub for video, audio, photography
👘 Virtual costume catalog with details per outfit
🕰️ Visual timeline to showcase history
🌍 Seamless PL/EN language switch
📥 Downloadable materials and archives
🧑🤝🧑 “Join the Ensemble” feature with simple contact flow
🛠️ Modular CMS built for non-technical users
This is one of the projects we’re most proud of – not only because of the complexity, but because of its meaning.
🧾 Conclusion: A Platform That Honors the Past and Inspires the Future
For us, this wasn’t just a web build. It was a collaboration with people who live and breathe cultural preservation. Together, we created something that’s as functional as it is emotional.
Zespół Dolina Popradu now has a digital home that supports their mission: to keep tradition alive by making it accessible to everyone.
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