Tips for Better Museum Website Design

Museums offer unique opportunities for learning, community, and connection. While nothing can replace the experience of visiting a museum in person, in today’s online world, institutions must also translate that magic to a digital platform.

When executed effectively, a museum website can be a powerful tool. Like its physical counterpart, it should engage the senses, foster community, and showcase what makes the museum unique.

This blog offers tips for crafting a better website, including best practices for impactful design and a list of must-haves for your online content.

Why is It Important to Have a Captivating Museum Website Design?

A well-designed museum website is more than a digital brochure for your institution – it’s an immersive experience that reflects your mission and inspires visitors to check out your next event or exhibit in person.

With many institutions facing declining funds and donations, it’s more important than ever for museums to build a compelling digital presence. A standout museum website can drive membership, in-person visits, and donations.

What Makes a Museum Website Design Good?

Think of your museum website as a digital extension of your physical experience. The website should immerse visitors in your world, as if they were stepping into a contemporary art gallery or science museum.  

Whether you showcase modern art, natural history, or African American culture, a great website evokes the exploration and inspiration your museum offers in person. A successful museum website can be the launch pad for your institution’s events, exhibits, fundraising efforts, creative campaigns, and more.

Best Practices for Designing an Impactful Museum Website

To effectively bridge the gap between your physical and digital presence, keep the following best practices in mind as you evaluate your website for a potential redesign.

Custom Design and Branding

Custom website design and branding are essential for museums because they help to create a unique and memorable experience for visitors. People expect a certain level of class and finesse from cultural institutions such as museums—don’t let unprofessional web design take away from your museum’s reputation!

A distinctive color palette, cohesive typography and fonts, and polished visuals build trust and credibility as a cultural institution. It also helps create a professional and polished image for your museum, allowing you to communicate your mission and impact clearly and effectively.

User Experience Design

User experience (UX) design is crucial for museum websites because it directly impacts how visitors perceive your institution. A well-designed website fosters a positive and interactive experience, encouraging visitors to explore further and return in the future.

UX design helps present your website content in a visually appealing way that is easy to understand and interesting to explore. Part of UX is creating a clear and intuitive navigation structure to help visitors find the information they’re looking for quickly and easily. By prioritizing UX design, museums can create informative, enjoyable, and engaging websites for visitors.

Accessibility

A well-designed website should be accessible to all visitors, including those with disabilities. Adhere to the internationally recognized standards of WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) to ensure your website is user-friendly and everyone can enjoy your museum’s offerings.

Mobile Optimization

Remember that most web visitors will view your website on a mobile device. Mobile optimization can be tricky, especially for older sites. One key is ensuring the most-used options are easy to find and click. Remember to prioritize hours and location information on mobile!

CTA Buttons

To encourage visitors to take the next step, such as contacting your museum or planning a visit, you need clear and compelling CTAs (i.e., “calls-to-action”). Compelling CTA buttons are essential for driving engagement on your museum’s website.

Choose a CTA color that pops. The color should contrast with the other colors on your site to create a visual hierarchy. This helps your CTA buttons stand out and encourages visitors to click.

Remember, CTA buttons should provide a direct path for visitors to take action on your site, whether it’s subscribing to your newsletter, requesting more information, or even donating. However, providing too many options at once can confuse or overwhelm visitors and prevent them from clicking. Limit your CTA buttons to the one or two most relevant to the place where they appear.

Engaging Content

As discussed above, a blog with compelling content can educate your visitors and help keep your museum’s SEO game in tip-top shape. But “content” includes everything on your site, such as images, videos, exhibit descriptions, and blog posts.

With each piece of content on your website, keep your audience and purpose in mind, and be sure to tell the story of what makes your institution unique to drive visitors and donors to your museum’s door.

High-quality Visuals

Your website shines when you include beautiful images optimized for speed and performance.

When choosing photographs for your website, consider what makes your institution unique. This could include key pieces from your collections, the architecture of the building, your location, and/or community members enjoying a special activity or event.

If you don’t yet have many compelling (and, ideally, professionally photographed) images for your site, organizing a photo shoot can be a highly effective add-on to a website project. Feature high-quality photos of what makes your institution stand out, and your website will too.

Search Engine Optimization

Your website is only effective if people find it. Search engine optimization (SEO) should be part of your website’s design from the first step, rather than an afterthought. This includes thoughtful information architecture and journey-mapping. If you aren’t sure how to use SEO to grow your museum’s attendance, let us help you!

Social Media Integration

Sharing content across different social media platforms can drive community engagement, build brand awareness, and—you guessed it—improve your SEO. 

Encourage cross-platform sharing! Highlight moments like the latest gallery launch or new arrivals in your museum collections through Instagram and Facebook feeds directly embedded on your page. 

Remind visitors to follow you, cultivate community among your followers, and use your platforms to promote upcoming in-person events and new features on your site. These approaches can deepen the relationship between your institution’s physical and digital presence in the community.

What are Essential Features to Include in a Museum Website Design?

While your museum website might feature some creative and unique elements, there are some things every institution needs to include. Here’s our rundown of your website’s must-haves.

The Museum’s Mission

Prominently including your mission on your website is a must.

Your mission communicates your institution’s reason for existence, goals, and commitment to the community you serve. By articulating and displaying your mission on your website, you can attract visitors, donors, and volunteers who share your institution’s passion and goals.

Visitor Information

Visitors want essential information at their fingertips—literally. Especially for the mobile version of your website, make ticketing and admission information, hours of operation, and contact information extremely prominent.

On both the desktop and mobile versions of your homepage, you can also include a “plan your visit” page with all the relevant information, plus maps, directions, and instructions for parking.

Exhibits and Collections Pages

The content on your museum site should be structured around several key pages that serve as comprehensive central hubs for a specific topic or subject matter. Think of these pages as though they’re their own mini-homepages or landing pages for particular topics. These pages establish your authority, offer an overview of a subject, and provide links to related content.

Some key areas you might want to focus on include:

• Exhibits and Collections – Provide an overview of the museum’s permanent and temporary exhibits.
• History – Describe the museum’s history, its founding, and its evolution over time.
• Education – Highlight the museum’s educational programs, workshops, and resources for visitors of all ages.
• Research – Showcase the museum’s research activities, including ongoing projects, publications, and collaborations with scholars and researchers.

Creating pages for exhibits and other key topics provides visitors with a clear and organized structure for exploring your website’s content.

An Events Calendar

An events calendar that is intuitive for visitors to navigate—and easy for your staff to maintain—transforms your website into a helpful guide for museum visitors. If your website is built in WordPress, we recommend using The Events Calendar plugin. The core functionalities of this plugin are perfect for many institutions that need a simple calendar that updates with no fuss.

The WordPress plugin can also be customized, of course. One popular custom option is to create an “upcoming events” section on your homepage, such as a slider that features the next few events. This preview can help visitors find reasons to visit before visiting the dedicated calendar page.

Whatever solution you choose for your events calendar, make sure it’s easy to navigate on both desktop and mobile, and that it stays current to keep information up-to-date and relevant for your website visitors.

Blogs

A blog provides a platform for museum staff to share their knowledge, insights, and expertise with visitors. This can include articles on exhibitions, collections, historical events, and current trends in the museum field. Everyone loves behind-the-scenes content, so consider sharing images and stories of how special exhibits or research projects come together in your blog. Create previews of your posts to share on social media to increase your reach!

As a bonus, regularly updating your blog with high-quality content can improve your institution’s search engine optimization (SEO), making it easier for visitors to find your website.

Careers Page

A well-designed careers page can act as a form of community engagement. In addition to recruiting talent for full-time positions, you use this page to recruit volunteers and interns who care about your mission.

By having a dedicated careers page, you can effectively showcase your opportunities, attract qualified candidates, and strengthen your position as an employer of choice in the cultural sector.

Which Museum Has the Best Website?

To inspire your own museum web design, explore these standout examples that creatively tackle user engagement and branding. 

>> Discover more of the best museum websites. 

The Mütter Museum  

A paradise for lovers of the strange and obscure, the Mütter Museum uses its website to embody its quirky personality. Featuring everything from blinking digital eye images to eerie rotating exhibits, the website reflects its curated display of unusual medical artifacts. Visitors are immediately hooked, compelled to explore its events and podcast.  

The Florida Holocaust Museum  

This museum’s interactive take on storytelling shines through its website, particularly through cutting-edge technology. The “Dimensions in Testimony” exhibit uses state-of-the-art natural language tools to allow visitors to hear testimonies from Holocaust survivors. Clean, simple navigation ensures that activities such as visiting, donating, or learning are always within reach.  

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History  

The website seamlessly weaves core African American themes into its design, filled with warm and inviting colors. Featuring sections on Detroit’s jazz legacy, the resilience of the African diaspora, and prominent artists, it offers a rich online experience without overwhelming the user interface.  

The Met Museum  

Famed as the centerpiece of New York culture, the Met Museum extends its elegance into its online platform. With a minimalist design, beautiful visuals of its fine arts collections, and in-depth exhibit explanations, the website captures one of the most impressive examples of brand alignment for an art museum.  

Rijksmuseum  

A national pride of Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum highlights grandeur both offline and online. Its neat layout ensures visitors can easily scroll through personalities like Rembrandt or Van Gogh. It also showcases immersive online tours, optimized SEO, and detailed exhibit imagery. 

Recommended Design Tools to Elevate Your Museum Website

Hubspot for Museums can be an excellent tool for many museums to consider pairing with their website design. Hubspot is a comprehensive marketing and CRM platform that can help museums improve their marketing efforts, build stronger relationships with visitors, and achieve their goals. HubSpot can be a bit pricey, but it offers a 40% discount for 501(c)(3)s, so it’s worth looking at.

FundraiseUp is another strong option. It’s easy to set up, provides good tracking, employs AI-enabled donation ask personalization, and includes upsell tools to encourage more donations and boost recurring giving.

If you want to understand and track how users interact with your website, you can’t go wrong with Google Analytics. It provides critical insights into user demographics, web traffic origins, user behavior on your site, and conversion rates.

And if revamping your site and learning new tools is a no-go for your team, don’t be afraid to outsource: a professional museum marketing agency can take your institution’s website to the next level.

Let Big Sea Help Design Your Museum’s Website

A museum’s website reflects its ability to merge education, culture, and pleasure. By focusing on museum web design best practices, you can create an immersive online counterpart to your institution that turns intrigued visitors into in-person patrons, donors, or lifelong supporters.  

Looking for design inspiration or need support for your platform upgrade? We live and breathe museum marketing. If your institution is ready for a fresh website, contact Big Sea.