GLAMi nomination: Science Museum Group Websites Relaunch

The Science Museum Group is comprised of five museums. In March 2017, each museum had its own brand and its own distinct web presence. As a result of focusing on creating new online initiatives rather than managing the web estate, there were also dozens of project microsites comprising tens of thousands of pages, many dating back over a decade. The result of this was:

• poor user experience, navigation, search and content discovery
• fragmented and dated design
• inward focused structure, reflecting the organisation and its projects rather than audience needs
• only partial support for mobile and touchscreens
• low accessibility in many areas
• large volumes of out-of-date, duplicated and underperforming content
• cumbersome technology and extensive use of Flash

Over the last year, the Science Museum Group has completely reworked its entire web estate through a gargantuan project with numerous parallel initiatives. For various reasons (rebranding, exhibition openings, etc.) the project had a very compressed timeline and multiple deadlines that could not be missed. The project’s specific deliverables were:

• Early launch of beta website to prototype and user test approaches alongside redevelopment of new websites;
• Relaunch of five museum websites:
  • Science Museum, London
  • National Science and Media Museum, Bradford
  • Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester
  • Locomotion, Shildon
  • National Railway Museum, York  (Launches April 2018)
• Launch of new online collection website
• Launch of new Learning Resources website for teachers
• Launch of new corporate Science Museum Group website
• Relaunch of the museums’ blogs including launch of new specialist blogs (Transforming Practice blog example)
• Implementation of a new online recruitment portal
• Implementation of a new ticketing and customer relationship management system (Science Museum example)

Within this ambitious and complex programme, a eight components were selected to be “gold plated” and given special attention both within the project in the longer term planning:

1. New brand and simplified, user-centred experience, including design continuity across all websites
2. Extensive use of moving image content to communicate the experience of visiting the museums (example 1, example 2, example 3, example 4, example 5, example 6)
3. Recognising that the collection tends to be opaque without context, development of narrative formats to provide a platform to tell the stories using text, images and rich media (example 1, example 2, example 3, example 4, example 5, example 6, example 7, example 8);
4. Use of short-form video content to foreground the voices of curators and bring the collection and science to life (example 1, example 2,  example 3, example 4, example 5)
5. Within the online collection, implementation of large images, unification of archival material and objects, powerful search and ability to support large-scale digitisation initiative from mid-2018
6. Introduction of new forms of digital learning resources for teachers including 3D scans of objects
7. Based on in-depth user research (which we’re in the process of sharing through the Group’s Digital Lab publication on Medium)
8. Revisiting of all legacy content including redevelopment of Flash components to HTML5 including the award winning Launchball game

Vast and complex in it’s scope and interdependencies, the project has met every deadline over the past 12 months and successfully delivered a transformation in the Science Museum Group’s online presence. The new web estate has been very well received by both the museum and its audiences and is already forming the foundations for the next phase of the Group’s digital ambitions.