Metropolitan Museum of Art
Website, online collection and systems integration
New York City, New York, US
About the project
Probably the largest digital media project yet undertaken by a museum.
- More than 340,000 works of art online
- Online collection driven by multiple instances of TMS
- Programatically standardising metadata to provide a seamless user experience
- Powerful faceted collections search which showcases artwork relationships and contextual links
- Integration with ticketing, e-mail, membership and donations systems
- Over 100 stakeholders engaged and interviewed
- Over 400 user testing sessions
- Multiple awards, including Best Online Collection
“@metmuseum Without a doubt the best museum website on the planet! A great inspiration to this artist.”
“Checking out the new @metmuseum website ... lots and lots of pictures of works they have on view. next best thing to being there #museumlove”
“Check out @metmuseum’s new website: www.metmuseum.org Large images, easy navigation – it’s beautiful!”
Awards
Best of the Web Awards 2012: Winner in the Research and Online Collection category
16th Annual Webby Awards 2012: Official Honoree in the Art Category
European Design Awards 2012: Bronze in the Best Information website Category
Sitecore’s Site of the Year 2011: Best Site Representing the Arts
Interactive Media Awards 2011: Best in Class in the Museum Category
What we did
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is one of the world's largest and finest art museums. Founded in 1870, its collections include more than two million works of art, spanning five thousand years of world culture, from prehistory to the present and from every part of the globe. Cogapp was commissioned to redesign the museum’s website, which launched in 2011. In 2016 the digital team at The Met updated the site in line with their new brand, building on top of the work detailed here.
Initial Discovery involved interviews and workshops with more than 100 Museum stakeholders. In parallel, we undertook extensive research into the Museum’s visitors and members needs, thus setting the brief for our design and technology teams. Combining the findings and insights helped us to create a comprehensive and powerful digital vision for the Museum.
Once the vision was established, we began to develop the interaction and design for the new site. A thoughtfully-considered approach by our designers worked well with the Museum’s own design program and guidelines. We worked in iterations that were then tested with users, and reviewed by the client. More than 400 user-testing sessions have been conducted during the project period.
Concurrently, we initiated a comprehensive technical stream to ensure the appropriate underlying technology was in place to support the new requirements. A significant improvement was the selection and implementation of Sitecore, a new content management system (CMS), which now provides the platform for both the desktop and mobile-optimised versions of the site.
The resulting website is a strong user- and organisation-centric platform, enabling visitors to benefit from an enriching and informative experience before, during and after their visit to the Museum.
Press
The Metropolitan Museum of Art official press release
Get in touch
If you would like to find out how Cogapp can give you an incredible online collection, integrate with Tessitura and Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS), or use our decades of experience working digitally with cultural institutions, please get in touch.