Making the history of the British Army accessible to everyone.
- Client:
- National Army Museum
- Services:
- Discovery, Build & Optimise, Design, UX, Drupal
The brief.
In 2014, the National Army Museum closed for three years while they undertook a major redevelopment and a radical rebrand. They tasked us with designing and building a vibrant new website to coincide with their reopening, to showcase their updated image and encourage new audiences to engage with the museum's vast collection.
The results.
We designed an intuitive navigation and homepage that connects exhibition content to the museum's online collection containing millions of items. Museum curators can now easily group media and historical content into beautifully simple landing pages that make it effortless and enjoyable for the public to join the conversation.
Project achievements.
Unique mobile sessions up by 75%.
The redesigned site focusses on storytelling rather than sales, engaging younger audiences browsing the site on their smartphones.
Lower bounce rates.
On desktop bounce rates have fallen by 30%.
Improved performance.
And despite having richer content, page load times have decreased by 19%.
What we did.
Our proposal was to build a digital estate around the concept of conversation and exploration. The goal was to expose people to objects, stories and opinions in ways that would nudge them to see and experience world events from multiple viewpoints. We would build conversation into the core of the new site and its background technology, preparing the museum for phases of digital transformation that had not yet begun.
We planned for the online experience to seamlessly integrate with the museum experience. The website systems would connect web and gallery through screen-based interactive experiences.
We considered every aspect of the site, from its design systems to its technology, to be able to accommodate the needs of the museum as it adapts to the demands of its visitors. Flexibility was a design consideration from day one.
The site supports a new brand proposition and a new way that the museum talks about itself. It enables the museum to engage more school groups, families, and younger audiences. By portraying a very different face, it gives the museum's editors, curators, and designers confidence to act and speak in a more engaging way.
Deeson have always met and often exceeded our expectations. This owes as much to their approach to client communications as it does to their technical expertise. We have always been presented with solutions rather than problems.