All work

The Broken Spoke

Texas dancehall & restaurant Austin, TX Homepage redesign

The most famous honky-tonk in Texas, with a website stuck in 2008. I redesigned the homepage to give the legend a front door that matches it.

brokenspokeaustintx.net
The redesigned Broken Spoke homepage — hover to scroll through it
a Texas icon,
reimagined.
Industry
Live music & food
Location
S. Lamar, Austin
Project
Homepage redesign
The focus
The basics, surfaced
01
The place

A genuine Texas legend.

The Broken Spoke has been on South Lamar since 1964: "the last of the true Texas dancehalls." Live music six nights a week, two-step lessons, chicken-fried steak, and a Texas Historical Marker out front. It does not have a marketing problem.

I found it while looking for icons whose website doesn't match the place.

02
What I'd change

Famous in person. Hard to use online.

The site has wagon-wheel clip art, a black background, and a fifteen-item menu that buries the four things a visitor actually wants: who's playing tonight, when the free show starts, how to book a dance lesson, and where to park.

For a place this loved, the website should be the easy part. Right now a first-time visitor has to dig for the basics, on a phone, the night they're deciding where to go.

when the place is famous,
the site just has to not get in the way.
03
The fix

Keep the soul. Surface the basics.

Lean into the history, but put tonight's plan one tap away.

  • A hero with tonight's band and showtime up top, updated nightly.
  • Four clear actions: see the calendar, book a lesson, see the menu, get directions.
  • Cut the fifteen-item menu to the handful people actually use.
  • Keep the vintage character, lose the clip art and the 2008 layout.

Same legend, same stories. Just a homepage that helps you actually get there tonight.

04
The goal

Here's the number I'd hold this homepage to.

"For a famous place, the metric isn't awareness, it's friction. I'd track how fast a phone visitor can find tonight's band and the directions. Every second shaved off that is a table filled and a lesson booked."

Before / after

Their real site, then my concept.

Before · their real site
brokenspokeaustintx.net
The current Broken Spoke homepage: a black background, wagon-wheel clip art, and a long button-row menu.
After · my concept
brokenspokeaustintx.net
Full homepage of the redesigned Broken Spoke site — hover to scroll through it

View the full redesign → A complete homepage concept, in their brand. Opens in a new tab.

More work

Live client work · Healthtech

Olli Health

The brand behind a $500K pre-seed to a $10M raise. →

Loved in person, dated online?

Send me your site. I'll record a free audit and tell you exactly what I'd change first.

Get a free website audit