“Attendance and enrollment have been robust over the last year; the website is now playing the role it should, which is to draw people to the diverse range of activities that take place here while presenting the public face of the museum in the best possible light.”
Michael Gillespie, Director of Marketing and Communications
Client:
The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) in Montclair, New Jersey is a community-based institution with an international reputation. The museum's American and Native American art collection includes more than 12,000 paintings, prints, and original works on paper, photographs, and sculpture. MAM's Yard School of Art is the leading regional art school, offering a multitude of comprehensive courses for children, teens, and adults, as well as professional artists.
Challenge:
MAM's old website did not reflect the museum's brand, mission, or meet its changing needs as it reached out to the community with exhibitions, special events, and art classes. The design was generic, the code was not search engine-friendly, and the site architecture was confusing. Staff could not easily update content on the site, which resulted in a homepage with a single static image and stale content.
Navigation was confusing and inconsistent in the old site due to issues with the organizational structure and lack of a site-wide search. It was structured to follow the organizational structure of the museum with little regard for providing visitors easiest access to information.
MAM relies heavily on the Yard School of Art, museum memberships, and donations for revenue, but the old website did not offer the ability to register for art classes, purchase memberships, make donations, or conduct online store purchases. Also, because MAM offers discounts to its members, museum management felt it was critical for the new site to recognize its members when they visit, so they would receive member discounts on their purchases for classes, tickets, etc.
Solution:
Brand: LForm redesigned the site to express MAM's culture and mission by bringing its vast visual art collection to the forefront and throughout the site. The consistent, clear design helps visitors find what they need fast, while the professional, elegant streamlined interface reflects the quality of the museum.
Site architecture:
Content was reorganized to reflect how visitors looked for information instead of how departments are organized. LForm developed four different types of navigation and a site-wide search engine so all visitors can find information in a way that makes sense to them.
Content:
The site was built upon a flexible, proprietary content management system (CMS), which enables museum staff to keep the site current with timely updates of special programs, events, and exhibitions. The redesign also allowed MAM to greatly expand site content. The new site describes classes, exhibitions, and special events in greater detail, and makes use of the substantial art collection image library to showcase the museum's assets.
Results:
The results from this highly creative website redesign were immediate. In two short months, traffic increased by 32%, with the unique visitor count averaging about 12,000 monthly. This upward trend has continued in subsequent months, resulting in the highest attendance ever for a special exhibition in March-July 2009 and a significant increase in class enrollment at the Yard School of Art. Not only has the class registration process become smoother for students, but also more efficient for staff.
Response to the redesign has been overwhelmingly positive, from the MAM board, staff, and volunteers to visitors, members, and art students. Site visitors now have easy access to dynamically updated information about every aspect of the museum. Internally, staff members responsible for maintaining sections of the site describe the new CMS as easy to use, making their tasks ultra-efficient. For example, when an art class has filled to capacity, the art school leaders can immediately add a notation to the class listing and close registration for that class.
“We've made an investment that will last a long time. The website structure and CMS are so flexible; we can make certain types of changes without overhauling it every year. As the web evolves, we can evolve with it by adding the latest web tools and functionality right onto the site we have now.”
Michael Gillespie, Director of Marketing and Communications
