Design Challenges:

1. Enhance user experience: The previous website was not optimized for mobile devices, leading to a poor user experience. We aimed to create a mobile website that was easy to navigate, visually appealing, and engaging for visitors.

2. Improve content organization: The museum had a large amount of content that needed to be organized and displayed effectively on a mobile device. We aimed to create a clear information architecture and navigation system that would help users easily find the content they were looking for.

3. Ensure visual consistency: The museum's brand identity and visual style needed to be maintained while also creating a modern and engaging design for the mobile website. We aimed to strike a balance between the two while keeping a consistent visual style across the website.

4. Create engaging features: The museum stakeholders wanted the mobile website to be immersive and engaging for visitors. We aimed to design interactive features and provide an engaging user experience while still prioritizing usability and accessibility.

Visual Design Key Highlights:

To create an engaging and visually appealing mobile website for the Merchants House Museum, I focused on creating a design that emphasized the museum's historical significance while appealing to a contemporary audience. Here are some key highlights:

• Created a clean and modern aesthetic that emphasized the museum's historical significance while appealing to a contemporary audience

• Used a consistent color scheme, typography, and visual elements throughout the website to create a cohesive and unified user experience. Chose colors that reflected the museum's brand identity while also being accessible and legible on a mobile device

• Used typography for its legibility and readability, and white space to create a sense of balance and clarity

• Incorporated high-quality images, videos, and interactive features to create a more immersive experience for visitors

• Prioritized readability and ease of navigation by using clear and legible typography with clear visual cues for buttons and links

• Organized the content in a logical and easy-to-follow way

Interactive Features:

To create an engaging and immersive experience for visitors, we designed a range of interactive features and functionalities that were optimized for mobile devices. Here are some of the key highlights from the same.

• Added a top header and burger menu to provide users with easy access to the main sections of the website

• Included carousels to showcase the museum's collections and events in a visually engaging way

• Used drop-down buttons/text to avoid overwhelming users with too much information on a single page

• Designed expansive texts to provide visitors with detailed information about the museum's history, collections, and events without cluttering the page

The interactives were designed the interactive features with the user's needs and expectations in mind, making sure they were intuitive, easy to use, and provided value to the visitor's overall experience of the museum. We also ensured that the interactive features were responsive and optimized for mobile devices, ensuring that they worked seamlessly on different screen sizes and resolutions.

Results/Outcome:

Based on the design work that has been done and approved, the following are the expected results once the mobile version of the Merchants House Museum website is fully developed:

• Enhanced user experience: The mobile website is expected to be easy to navigate, visually appealing, and engaging for visitors, thereby providing an enhanced user experience.

• Improved content organization: The clear information architecture and navigation system are expected to help users easily find the content they are looking for.

• Visual consistency: The balance between the museum's brand identity and visual style is expected to be maintained, while also creating a modern and engaging design for the mobile website, resulting in a consistent visual style across the website.

• Engaging features: The interactive features that have been designed are expected to provide an immersive and engaging experience for visitors, thereby fulfilling the museum stakeholders' expectations.

Once the mobile website is launched and made available to the public, it will be monitored to determine its effectiveness in meeting these goals. Metrics such as website traffic, user engagement, time spent on the website, and click-through rates will be analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of the design work done. The data will be used to make any necessary improvements and enhancements to the mobile website, ensuring that it continues to provide a positive user experience and support the museum's goals and objectives.