A New Way to Visit
The University of Arizona Museum of Art collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets original works of art. In all of its efforts, the museum serves as an advocate for the expressive, intellectual and sensory importance of art in society.
The University of Arizona Museum of Art wanted their entire website to be redesigned. They also needed us to preserve and structure their events database containing over 50,000 unique files into the new CMS and layout. The old site was cumbersome and did not allow for easy content navigation. It was very important to the museum that the site support responsive scaling and provide easy, intuitive navigational control for their users.
Client
University of Arizona art department. Design and development of the new site, custom integration with UofA Collections system
User Research
Home page was divided into 4 sections: The top part of the page displayed all the current events. This was done because most of the users come to the site for events therefore they are the highest priority. The second portion displays general information about UofA Art museum followed by a row that shows all the latest new. Last we have the footer that has details about the location itself as well as links to help you jump to the right section within the site.
User Driven Layout
The main home page was built in a priority sectional manner. The top part of the page displayed all the current events. This was done because most of the users come to the site for events therefore they are the highest priority. The second portion displays general information about the UofA Art museum followed by a row that shows all the latest news. Last we have the footer that has details about the location itself as well as links to help you jump to the right section within the site.
Mobile Integrations
The new site was also optimized for mobile with a user-first experience which proved to have low bounce rates following its release according to analytics. In fact, a majority of interaction with the site took place on mobile devices.
Rebuilding the Catalogue
We developed a function for the website architecture to aid in custom migration via integration. This allowed a user to migrate all existing museum art catalogs into a new format. This feature worked for not just images but also for events or exhibitions. This new system additionally allowed you the option to search the entire database using the built-in Word Press search functionality.
Unique Experience for Each User
Our goal was to make each interaction memorable. Each exhibit or artwork piece could have its own custom background that would create a unique experience.
Results
The new buildout allowed the university to streamline a number of operations such as sales, ticketing, event capacity tracking, etc. Having a high-quality digital presence brought the University’s impressive Museum of Art to a far wider audience’s attention.
