A REFREsHED wEBsITE
FOR A REFREsHED MusEuM
With the museum’s rebranding complete, one major piece of the puzzle remained unplaced: the website.
Designed and built in 2015, the site was still functional, but it was overdue for a refresh. Pentagram’s beautiful, streamlined design provided models for how the new site should look and feel, and the museum contracted with Lifted Logic to do the actual build and implementation. Based out of Kansas City, Lifted Logic didn’t seem like the obvious choice, but its focus on marketing and solid copywriting helped it win the bid to design the museum’s new site. The goal was to simplify the site and make it more functional, with a more obvious navigation system as well as a fresh look. Lifted Logic had worked with organizations including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures, the Museum of Wisconsin Art and Union Station (a collection of museums and attractions within a historic site), but it had also worked with a wide variety of other nonprofits and businesses. That meant the firm understood both the special challenges of museums and how non-museum organizations do things, giving it insights into how a museum could communicate more clearly with its various audiences. The resulting site, launched last fall, loads faster and gets visitors to where they want to go, with a search engine optimization focus. It tells our story more clearly and integrates with Pentagram’s brand guidelines to present the Georgia Museum as a place for discovery, learning and inspiration that has a strong relationship with its parent
organization, the University of Georgia. Open it on your phone, on your laptop or on your giant desktop screen, and you’ll have a smooth and visually compelling experience that features works from the collection. The site also makes it easier to find and understand all the things the museum provides to different audiences: university students and faculty, pre-K – 12 teachers and students, youth and family programs, community and public programs. Strong images and clear, simple text convey our value proposition: we share a world of art with you. Another major improvement was to accessibility. The museum’s previous site wasn’t inaccessible to people with visual impairments, but it wasn’t as accessible as it could or should have been. Lifted Logic focused on getting the new site up to speed, with design that makes the museum accessible to everyone. Pentagram remained involved throughout the process of design, providing feedback and design tweaks to ensure that the website embodied brand guidelines. Lifted Logic built the site in a way that makes it easy for museum staff to maintain it and add new features and content. Next up? A revised and improved collections search function, built on a new digital asset management system, making it even easier to find what you’re looking for among our nearly 20,000 objects.
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