Bay Area Discovery Museum
Designing a multi-site that promotes early learning experiences
The Bay Area Discovery Museum is a children’s museum located in Sausalito, CA. They realized that their website was in dire need of an upgrade.
Re-designed the website to organize and navigate the information seamlessly with a modern interface. This was a collaborative effort with the creative team at Lion Interactive.
Team: Project Managers, Designers, and Developers
Role: UX/UI Designer
Contents: Project Overview, Target Goals, Website Audit & Findings, Site Map, Flow Chart, Wireframes, UI Explorations.
Project Overview
Visiting the museum was such a beautiful sight but a complete contrast from its counterpart website. The web interface was outdated, cramped and siloed with information and simply wasn’t a pleasant experience.
Target Goals
Meeting with the members of the executive team helped by clarifying questions about the organization's mission, target audience, and business goals for the project and company. They also provided us with user-insights. I also wrote down some design principles to keep us focused on the project and its goals.
Website Audit & Findings
• Much of the most valuable information was buried deep in the website.
• There were no CTA’s on the menu for users to access quickly.
• Terminology for some links was vague, such as “Connections” or “25 Years.”
• Lacked social media links and a newsletter sign up option.
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New Sitemap
We did our best to come up with a solution, calling out the most important links and making them more organized. We repeated this process 3 times while refining sitemaps each time.
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Navigation Flow Chart
Zooming in further, I plotted down the most important features “Buy Tickets” and “Get Involved” since they served as the touchpoints of support.
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Stages of Wireframes
Taking all the necessary information, I began sketching a few different layouts. I didn’t exactly start out doing mobile-first but rather do the two simultaneously for the sake of time. A responsive conversion was a must in this, as many users (i.e. parents and tourists) favor accessing the website while they're on the go and quickly check the latest events, news, and exhibits. We validated the wireframes to users and stakeholders by sharing prototypes.
UI Explorations
Outcome & Key Takeaways
• Average monthly visits increased by 65%.
• Decreased amount of support calls/emails.
• Increased newsletter signups.
• Positive reviews and great reception of the new design.
• Much easier process for the admin team to upload and manage content via Wordpress.
Visit Site
• The Bay Area Discovery Museum was one
of my most valuable experiences, impacting my growth as a UI Designer, working on responsive, digital spaces.
• Throughout the 2-month sprints, I had a chance to work closely with lead designers which helped me improve myself to become a better visual designer. During every critique, I found myself taking notes and implementing the learnings going forward.