Celebrating 25 years of contemporary Scottish art

The National Galleries of Scotland

Painting by numbers

400k
Visitors
68%
More visitors than anticipated

The Challenge

Generation was set to be Scotland’s biggest ever art show.

Such an ambitious undertaking required an online presence to match. The site needed to connect a wider, more diverse audience with contemporary art — while always meeting the highest standards of design and visual excellence.

The Objectives

  • Make contemporary art accessible

    Give a wider public the chance to engage with contemporary art and ideas.
  • Get more people to the gallery

    Increase the number and range of attendees across all venues.
  • Celebrate the achievements of Scottish art

    Promote Scotland's distinguished international artistic reputation.

The Insight

With over 60 galleries involved in Generation, it would be difficult – if not impossible – for a person to view the entire exhibition.

The website had to do what the physical gallery spaces could not: provide easy access to every work of art on display — along with additional information and insights.

Users needed to find practical information on exhibitions and events, and explore the story of Scotland’s art and its makers.

Platform logo
Winner: Scottish Creative Awards 2014Best Website

The Process

Research and briefing

Kick-off with a client workshop - going over scope, aims and target audience: from experienced exhibition-goers to art world first-timers.

Ideas and Design

Sketch ideas for the main parts of the site. Functional wireframes developed and iterated, based on testing with real users.

 

Site Build

Build the prototype into a polished, intuitive website. Versatile page templates created in Umbraco CMS to make content editing easy.

Source and edit content. Upload.

Test and Release

Core components built and into Beta release. Final improvements made with usability and accessibility testing.

Launch.

 

 

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Get in Touch

If you're looking for a website that you can stand back and admire, get in touch and we can discuss your requirements.