Find out what pages you need to have on your museum websites. In our recent redesign of the Morris Museum, these were the most important pages for users to find what they needed.
1) Homepage
The Homepage will be your biggest opportunity to catch the attention of your public, make them stay and explore your website, and therefore increase the chances of them visiting your museum. The imagery must be attractive and in line with the general tone of the art you exhibit. Its organization (different sections, calls to action, etc) also plays a key role in giving the user a great experience and in making them want to engage and visit your installations.
2) About
This is the place your public will go to learn more about the museum and about you. Here you tell the users about your history, your mission, and your values. This type of page usually includes sections such as “Join Our Team”, get “Memberships”, and buttons to “Contact Us”.
3) Buy Tickets Online
A pretty obvious feature here. It should always be EXTREMELY clear regarding prices and dates/schedules to help the users not make any mistakes. Putting together a selling system is one of our specialties at We Are Immediate. Here’s a little example of how it can look:
4) Exhibitions
This part can get a little bit tricky because if you have different types of exhibitions (Permanent, Current, or just one-day events), then content organization comes into play and it’d better be effective. Have a look at how we approached it in one of our latest projects:
Then, each box will lead to a specific page for that exhibition, where you can talk about the event, the author, their history, other works from that author, sell tickets, and more.
5) Events
There’s several museums out there with enough space and rooms to offer them for special events such as holiday parties, corporate meetings, customer appreciation days, or black-tie dinners. Usually, the users will have to schedule an appointment to discuss their event, or for a walk-through with your staff.
6) Donate
Even though museums can sometimes get governmental or private funds, there are some of them that rely on people’s donations to stay afloat. To help users donate easily, we have become experts at setting up donation pages for a variety of clients, all of which have seen their contributions increase.
7) Shop
There’s no real need to describe the advantages of having a virtual shop/online store that works properly. You can offer merchandising, replicas of the art you exhibit (or other famous paintings). If you want to include shipping to your store, it can be a little more difficult, but it will be worth it.
8) Classes
Art/history classes are a great way to attract and engage directly with people, as all age groups can be included. You can offer discounts for large groups. Schools often take advantage of this opportunity to take their kids to a different experience. The same can be said about retirement homes and senior citizens’ clubs.
9) Contact Us
This is an essential page to have on every website that wants to engage with people. Your telephone numbers, your emails, your address, and even maybe a map showing your exact location can be extremely useful for people wanting to visit your museum.
10) News
A section dedicated to telling people what’s new with your museum, your staff, and all news related to your line of work can be a great addition to your website, as you would be adding value to the user experience.