Featured Project: Grand Rapids Art Museum
- Services
- Usability Analysis
- Market Analysis
- Journey Mapping
- Content and Strategy
- Website Design & Development
The iconic Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is the first LEED Certified art museum in the world, and home to over 5,000 artifacts in collections spanning from the Renaissance to Modern Art. Much more than a museum, GRAM is a hub for a variety of educational programming and creative events that connect people from across the greater Grand Rapids community through art, creativity, and design.
One Design was invited by GRAM’s marketing team to design a rich digital experience that embodies the welcoming, accessible nature of its physical space and programming. Starting with target audience needs and journeys, we collaborated closely with the GRAM team to design a user-focused, content-first experience that invites all visitors to easily explore what GRAM has to offer—all built on a content management system that is easy for internal teams to use and scalable for future growth.
If you build it right, they will come
In order to make the website a tool that extends a warm and inclusive invitation to all, we simplified the visitor journey with intuitive content organization, industry best-practices, and clear calls-to-action. We also prioritized highlights from the events calendar on the homepage to immediately communicate that there’s a dynamic range of programming available, both in and out of the building. No matter who you are, you can now easily find something to do, something to learn, or a way to volunteer, join or donate.
Making the art world more accessible
To make the museum’s permanent collection more accessible to all, we put a curated selection of pieces from GRAM’s archives on the site for users to explore. An Art & Artists page serves as a gateway to the collection, exhibitions, and more, including artist interview videos and virtual exhibition tours. We also added installation photography and artist videos to exhibition pages to bring the museum experience to life for virtual visitors.
A CMS that sets the team up for success
The new website features a modern and flexible CMS that supports the museum’s needs today and can grow with them into the future. It’s tailored for GRAM’s content, with specifically-defined fields to provide guardrails for consistency, while also providing plenty of components so the team can easily edit and build new pages as needed.
Art is constantly evolving
We are excited to unveil this new site with GRAM, and proud to be helping such a great institution build connections through art, creativity, and design by making its collection of artifacts, programs, and events more accessible to all. And our collaboration will continue—we are hosting the site and will support GRAM as new needs arise, meeting regularly to discuss site functionality, performance, and new features. So stay tuned. Art is always evolving and so are the best museums...and websites.
Header image credit: wHY Architecture
