Website redesign and redevelopment for the Andy Warhol Museum
We worked The Andy Warhol Museum, conducting a comprehensive overhaul of warhol.org. Launched in May 2017, The redesign included migrating the backend to WordPress, redesigning the frontend, establishing a content strategy, implementing a new information architecture, and auditing and rewriting all text and images.
The new warhol.org is conceived primarily as a communications tool for audiences planning to visit the museum or attend a program, with a secondary goal of providing much sought-after content on Warhol to digital visitors across the globe.The mobile-first design relies on bright colors, expressive typography, and images of visitors engaged in art making and art viewing. The homepage has been reimagined to highlight the unique, active experience of being at The Warhol: as a visitor, you can make art in our Factory studio, play with floating pillow-shaped balloons in the Silver Clouds installation, or star in your very own screen test. The new site is also highlights the rich work and life of Andy Warhol. Our Life page, for example, tells Warhol’s story as illustrated through collection objects.
The content strategy for the The Warhol’s website redesign was informed by the Visitor Motivation Survey that the museum participated in a year prior. Through this research, the staff at the Warhol Museum decided to prioritize local and tourist audiences planning a visit, focussing on the website as a communications tool first and foremost.
Working with staff at the museum, we developed detailed user personas, completed card sort activities, and created journey maps to facilitate a new approach to the information architecture for the site. The result is a website that speaks clearly and directly to audiences looking to engage with the museum through a visit or a program.
We worked with Prime Access Consulting, led by Sina Bahram, president, to make warhol.org accessible to users with a wide range of abilities and preferences. The site achieves WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.0 AA compliance and improves the web experience for visitors across a spectrum of abilities, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing; interact with the site via only keyboard or mouse due to limited mobility/motor control; people who are blind or have low vision and use a screen reader or employ zoom tools to enlarge the page; and users with cognitive disabilities.
Desi González, who was then The Warhol’s Manager of Digital Engagement, served as project manager and user experience lead, leading a core team that included Danielle Linzer and Jessica Warchall; and working with staff across the museum to redesign the site. We brought on Everything Type Company as our design partner. Zack Rothauser, Andrea Skeries and Daniel Abernathy contributed development. Sarah Wambold contributed to the content strategy.
Posted August 2018