Designing the first multi-vendor ecommerce platform for museums
Services Provided
Design • User experience (UX) • Development • Prototypes
Museums capture our imaginations like few other cultural venues, but their stores face an uphill battle in the age of online shopping. Philadelphia startup Twenty61 approached us with a unique solution. They wanted to consolidate the merchandise of several museums under one seamless website and app. They had the concept and passion. They needed the funding and support. With no prototypes to show off while pitching, Twenty61 had to start somewhere. And so did we.
We began with a discovery meeting with Twenty61 to brainstorm and outline the core functionalities of the ShopMuse prototype. We adopted a product-first philosophy throughout each design round, as online shoppers are accustomed to shopping by product and not by store. Our UX team challenged themselves to think like museum enthusiasts—who value the museums as much as the merchandise they sell—so we added News, Current Exhibits, and Museum Information sections. A first-of-its-kind platform for museums, ShopMuse demanded we think deeper about common elements like checkout screens and backend scalability while giving us the chance to collaborate with some the most distinguished museums in America.