This is a student project that was presented to the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art as part of SVC’s UI Certificate program.
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art: Digital Content Libary
The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) showcases the work of artists from the Puget Sound region, with 15 - 20 new shows annually, as well as a growing permanent collection. The museum also offers education programs, including field trips for students, hands-on art projects for children, after-school art clubs, summer camps, adult workshops, and programs for people going through Early Stage Memory Loss.
Located a short ferry ride from Seattle, BIMA attracts visitors from around the world and fosters a richer understanding of the region’s artistic and cultural contributions.
Brand Personality
Down to Earth, Spirited, Informed, Flexible, Stylish
How well does the current website communicate this identity?
The website is clean and modern and has a voice that is friendly and welcoming, rather than pretentious or intimidating.
Upcoming exhibitions and events are clearly communicated and prominently displayed.
A site menu allows users to easily learn more about the Museum, Current or Past Exhibitions, Upcoming Events, Educational Programs, and How to Become a Member.
So… What’s the Problem?
BIMA has a growing collection of Video Content that includes artist interviews, exhibition tours, educational programs, and even concerts. Unfortunately, this content is currently scattered about and lacks a central hub for users to see the entire collection. Many videos are currently on BIMA’s Youtube channel, while others are on Facebook and scattered throughout BIMA’s website.
What’s the Goal?
The goal is to make it easy for website visitors to browse the entire video catalog and easily find content that interests them. Providing a virtual museum experience in the form of videos allows BIMA to expand the geographical range of its audience, attract new visitors, and deepen its relationship with the community.
Target Audience
BIMA specified that their target audience is:
People stuck at home
Stay-at-home parents
Educators
Members and Fans
User Device Preferences
56% of visitors access the website through their computer, while 40% use their phone and 4% prefer tablet. These numbers suggest that both the Desktop and Mobile experiences should be optimal. Something that will be interesting to see is whether a new focus on video content alters these preferences by attracting a younger audience or lending itself to a more casual mobile viewing experience.
New vs. Returning Visitors
32% of visitors to the site are returning, and 68% are new. This provides a great opportunity to increase value for those already familiar with BIMA, as well as give new visitors more reason to linger on the website and return in the future.
Preferred Video Platform
When asked about where users tended to seek out art-related video content, 69.4% indicated that Youtube was their default choice. Museum websites came in a distant second at 16.7%, followed by Instagram at 8.3% and Vimeo at 5.6%.
Connection
The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art offers content that may interest a wide audience, from children’s story time to exhibition tours and artist talks. Judy is an example of a user who has a passion for education and a desire to keep up with what is happening in the local art scene, even when she can’t attend some events in person.
Design Time
With all this in mind, I initially began with a concept that would include categories displayed as tiles among a set of featured videos. However, I quickly determined that this was not an ideal solution, as it would require users to back out of a category in order to explore other categories.
Users can easily navigate between categories and scroll within a category to view videos, which are sorted by default as newest to oldest.
Menu options include the ability to sort all videos or within a specific category by date or title.
A simple Search function allows users to easily find a video they are looking for.