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Challenge
Navigating Miami's Latin American Art Hub in the Digital Age
The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is the largest art museum in Miami, with a focus on Latin American art. Beyond its role as a cultural institution, PAMM serves as a vibrant hub, hosting community events and playing a pivotal educational role.
The website had to effectively communicate its values, mission, and diverse offerings. Additionally, the launch of the new website would mark a significant milestone for PAMM, as it embraced the digitalisation of its art collection. Therefore achieving a balance between the physical and digital realms was paramount.
Approach
A Collaborative Journey from Foundation to Direction
Setting the Right Foundation
To set the right foundation for the new website, we conducted expert interviews and facilitated workshops to gain insights into target audiences, their problems, needs, and opportunities.
Prioritising Target Audiences
With a diverse audience ranging from regular visitors to students and event planners, PAMM faced the need to focus the user experience. We assisted the PAMM team in setting communication goals, prioritising "Visitors".
Creating the Content Framework
Our work included ensuring that target audiences found relevant information. We conducted a review of the old PAMM site, a competitor analysis, and held a remote workshop with the PAMM team to establish the new content framework for key pages.
Defining the Direction
Three distinct directions were created, aligning with the communication goals. Visual artefacts such as sitemaps and homepage wireframes facilitated discussions and further refined the UX with the PAMM team.
Direction #1 - The Visit
The landing page, "Visit Us," focuses on PAMM as a physical museum, emphasising practical information, ongoing events, and exhibitions.
Direction #2 - The Art (final direction)
The landing page, "Exhibitions & Collection" (later "Explore Art"), serves as an explorative space, prioritising PAMM’s digital collection and exhibitions.
Direction #3 - The Atmosphere
The landing page, "What’s On," portrays PAMM as a community hub, highlighting events, exhibitions, and personalised visitor guides.
Solution
Balancing the Explorative Art Universe and the Physical Museum
Focusing on What is Most Important
Structure
Having prioritised target audiences and content with the PAMM team, we streamlined the core - two main entry points, with a stronger focus on exhibitions and collection, merging them into one explorative space.
Navigation
We simplified the previously cluttered site to two key pages — "Visit Us" and "Explore Art" — with additional options available in the burger menu and a robust search feature for smaller target audiences seeking specific information.
An Explorative Art Universe
Explore Art
The landing page, "Explore Art", is a visually inspiring universe, encouraging users to delve into PAMM’s art, both the digital collection and exhibitions. It seamlessly connects to "Visit Us," inviting users to experience PAMM in person.
Collection
The Collection page features hundreds of digitised artworks, categorised by topics that emphasise PAMM's focus on Latin American art and the unique diversity of Miami-Dade.
Artwork
We implemented a robust taxonomy for digitised artwork, enhancing the user experience with topic tags, artist pages, and related artwork to facilitate further exploration.
Exhibitions
We introduced custom colour combinations and entry sizes to distinguish exhibitions. Considering accessibility requirements, a contrast feature was added.
A Practical Guide to Visiting the Museum
Visit Us
This section emphasises PAMM as a physical museum, providing practical information, ongoing events, and educational offerings. It seamlessly connects to "Learn," showcasing educational programs, resources, and activities for "Learners" — teachers, students, and families.
Learn
As the second most important target audience, ‘Learners’ are prominently featured throughout the "Visit Us" area, with separated sections for teachers, students, and families to ensure precise communication.