Redesigned harvardartmuseums.org provides new digital platform to enrich visitor experience and increase access to collections.

The Harvard Art Museums announce the launch of their redesigned and expanded website, ahead of the museums’ public opening on November 16, 2014. The website, harvardartmuseums.org, provides an enhanced digital platform to enrich the visitor experience at the museums’ Cambridge,Massachusetts, facility; the new site also increases access to the museums’ collections of approximately 250,000 objects. Interactive agency Area 17, known for combining technology anddesign to create highly functional products, worked closely with the museums’ Design and Digital Infrastructure and Emerging Technology departments to integrate robust content with innovative new features. Intended to be a resource before, during, and after a visit, the new site features high resolution images and in-depth information about works in the museums’ vast collections, extensive educational and interpretive tools, and interactive navigation guides. 

“As a leading arts institution, the Harvard Art Museums have a responsibility to connect with the widercommunity beyond Cambridge,” said Thomas W. Lentz, the Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Directorof the Harvard Art Museums. “Our redesigned website will serve as a powerful resource to visitors fromaround the world, in person and virtually.”

Featuring an eclectic arrangement of content set against a simple white background and responsivedesign optimized for viewing on mobile devices, the website has a clean, accessible look and feel thatreflects the spirit of the museums’ newly renovated and expanded facility, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Works from the collections of the Harvard Art Museums—comprising the Fogg,Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler Museums—feature prominently throughout the site, and eachof the approximately 250,000 objects also has an individual page with details about its exhibitionhistory, provenance, and conservation. Object images are a key component; users can closely examineworks using the site’s improved scrolling and zoom functionality. In many cases, multiple photos areavailable of the same object at various stages in its history, offering unparalleled insight into conservation and condition over time. 
“The art is front-and-center on the new site,” said Kemp Attwood, partner and executive creativedirector at Area 17. “There are no distractions—which offers a similar experience to being in a gallery with a work of art.” 

Among the website’s educational highlights are a new series of digital tours developed by the museums’ Division of Academic and Public Programs. Created by select faculty, curators, students,and staff, the self-guided tours allow for deeper engagement with objects on view in the galleries.Through text, images, and video, the tours encourage investigation and analysis of works of art and artmaking. Educators with special access can use the website’s proprietary content management system to create and share their own tours for teaching, thus enabling specialized study by educators and students across a variety of disciplines. A newly designed API also gives programmers and developersthe opportunity to access and use object records and data from the museums’ collections for educational purposes and analysis.

The website’s new navigational tools offer assistance in both actual and virtual visits to the museums.Users can consult interactive floor plans to learn about the contents of the galleries, including images ofeach object on view. The maps draw on information from the museums’ internal databases to ensure details are accurate and up-to-date. An enhanced search engine provides another powerful means ofengagement, enabling users to search by keyword, artist, title, and even gallery number to discoverrelevant information and images.

Enhancing interactivity and access was central to the website redesign. Nearly every feature, fromdigital tours to behind-the-scenes articles in the museums’ magazine, Index, is primed for sharing viaemail, Facebook, and Twitter. Visitors who create a free account with the new website can organizeand curate their own digital collections from the museums’ vast holdings, and save them to uniqueURLs in order to return to or even share them with others. An additional section devoted to the museums’ retail shop also offers seamless online ordering, giving global access to those who want topurchase the shop’s array of books, merchandise, gifts, and more.

All of the new site’s dynamic features complement the cutting-edge curatorial and research workundertaken at the Harvard Art Museums, while also encouraging more prolonged engagement fromvisitors both near and far. “There are many museum websites that you visit only to find out when themuseum is open and how much admission costs,” said Steven Waldron, the museums’ creative director. “We wanted our website to offer more. It is intended to invite multiple, in-depth visits.”