MFA Boston
Reimagining the MFA Boston digital experience to invite visitors into the museum with Base Design
Overview
In late 2022, I helped Base Design, a digital agency, deliver a vision for a reimagined MFA Boston website. Post-covid the institution was experiencing a substantial drop in memberships and visitations. Our job was two-fold: increase visitation, and design a website that communicated inclusivity to attract broader visitation and interest. Working with a Partner and Senior Designer we delivered a proposed vision for how the museum could attract broader audiences to the museum through their website. Our proposed vision was presented to the leadership team and enabled the website redesign phase to begin.
The Challenge
Following the pandemic, MFA Boston experienced a downtick in membership signups and needed reignite interest in the museum. My team's responsibility was to reimagine the MFA's digital presence to align with their new mission 'Open for all' and attract new demographics into the museum.
Collecting Stakeholder Insights
In order to reimagine the MFA Boston digital experience, we interviewed 14 stakeholders and collated over 30 questionnaire responses. Our goal was to understand the performance and vision for the website from various angles.
Auditing the digital landscape
To understand what was possible for the MFA, we conducted an extensive audit of 50 peer institutions to evaluate how they were compelling visitors to experience their museums. Notably, we found websites that allowed visitors to curate their own in-person experiences and engage with the museum through digital activities. From these insights, we were able to strengthen our proposals and suggest a set of possibilities for a reimagined MFA website.
Delivering Insights
Synthesizing our stakeholder interviews, Google Analytics findings, and peer institution explorations, we identified that the museum website predominantly operated as a ticket kiosk, converting site visitors to ticket purchasers who were already familiar with the museum. Surprisingly, we discovered that the website traffic was much more diverse in age and demographics. While they only explored a couple of museum pages, they represented the target audience the museum was seeking.
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The Approach
With our insights together, we delivered Base’s vision to transform the MFA website from a transactional experience into one that could engage viewers and help them find personal meaning in the collections of the MFA. Our approach was a pitch for what Base Design could create with a new website experience.
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