The Dapper Foundation’s first objective is to promote arts and cultures of Africa, the Caribbean and their diaspora. A pioneer in the field since its creation in 1986, the Dapper Foundation gathers knowledge about African arts through exhibitions and many projects in France and abroad.
Museum history
Created by the Dapper Foundation, the Dapper museum opened its gates in May 1986 and quickly attracted art lovers.
A committed actor and in constant evolution, the museum now wants to adapt to the digital era.
Context
On June 18th 2018, it was announced that the Museum itself would close. The Foundation now wishes to focus on internationally promoting the traditional Sub-Saharan African arts, mostly by setting up exhibitions abroad and by supporting contemporary artists.
We will develop a new, different and adapted internet offer, which will bring added value to visitors and which can outside of a physical space, exist off the walls.
— A. Leveau, General Administrator
In these circumstances, the agency Viens-là reshaped the digital communication strategy of the Foundation.
Dapper’s issue
How to digitize the collection and strengthen both the website’s identity and it’s link to the Dapper museum?
Objectives
- To reposition the Foundation’s image
- To digitize the collection of Ancient art
- To valorize support to contemporary artists
- To present past, current and upcoming actions
- To create a digital experience accessible to a large number of users
Audience & Targets
Different audiences come to the Museum, they like both walking around in it and discovering the works as we can see from comments posted on the Facebook page:
The agency proposal
Research
We first started with this question:
what is, nowadays, the distinguishing feature when visiting a museum?
Some insights were provided from our analysis, and some elements are to be integrated in the website:
- Cultural coordination (quick access to information and explanations)
- Free/Guided tours
- Audio guides
- Resources/ Information for kids
- The gift shop
Competition
We have benchmarked the competitors by assessing their websites (features, ergonomy, design) and their social networks (community, activations). After this study, we identified on one side some best practices: wishlist, compulsory information, captions, storytelling, etc.
On the other side, we noticed a lack of prioritization within the information and basic interfaces which were not enable to convey the essence of the museum.
Strategic thinking
We thought about how to:
- Allow someone to have the same experience on the website as one would at the museum
- Highlight the collaboration between the Foundation and some contemporary artists
- Integrate the shop into the website
Thoughts on content
Regarding the content, our objectives were:
- To be informative with an easy access to definitions of some specific vocabulary
- To communicate efficiently on the current activity of the Foundation
- To create viral content, easy to share on social networks.
Ergonomic recommendations
In order to create an immersive and fun user experience, we have considered the interface in its globality. The interface and interactions were first conceived and designed as wireframes.
General artistic direction
Modernizing the logo
When the museum closed, the Dapper Museum changed its name to become the Dapper Foundation. It wanted a modern logo while retaining continuity with the old one (in particular, it was important to keep the symbol).
Our answer — To modernize the typography, “clean” the symbol, highlight the website.
Graphic intentions
Editorial, sensory and top of the range
The artistic direction aims to be more editorial and top of the range. The internet user will have a meaningful experience through pictures, appearances, sounds and videos.
The three tones of ochre represent the color of the African soil, as well as the wood used widely in ancient art works.
The typography symbolizes the Museum’s fine aesthetic.
Burger Menu
We have chosen a Burger menu style which enables the user to find the following menus at the first level: about, ancient art, contemporary art, resources, agenda, news, contact and shop.
Ancient art page — highlighting a specific work of art
Shortening the time needed for a user to find information about a work of art was a real challenge. We decided on the use of a narrative thread:
- Brief description, date
- Country, people
- Collections, inventory number
- Pictures, videos
- Technique and materials, support, dimensions
- Audio, technical documentation to download
- History, exhibition and bibliography
- Associated books available in the shop
Contemporary Art collection page — immersive and interactive
This part clearly valorizes the Foundation Dapper’s expertise and portrays them as being at the forefront. The artist gallery shows the artists backed by the museum. The following information is given for each artist:
- Biography
- Country
- Style
- Photo/video gallery
Lexidapper — Creating an interaction with the user
The LexiDapper explains some technical terms. This dictionary within the website goes through all the pages to underline certain words and link definition pages to them. This content can be shared on social networks.
To create some traffic on this page, we link some definitions (chosen by the Foundation) to the home page.
Wishlist: answering a need
Everyone can use the wishlist: from new users to teachers and researchers who share precise information. The user can save certain works of art, artists and products from the shop to his or her wishlist.
- The user goes on an Artist, Work or Shop page.
- He adds it to his wishlist
- Once the wishlist is created, it can be viewed at any time
- The user can get a unique link in order to save it or share it.
Shop — improving the buying channel
Until the website was redone, the shop used to be an external to Dapper’s site. Integrating it in the website is a way to offer a full and relevant experience. We focus on:
- Optimizing the client journey
- Making the buying channel easier
- Greater coherence between the website and the online shop
- Segmentation of different types of products
Responsive Design
the website reshapes itself to adapt to all devices. All pages were designed to adapt to all devices in the first place (computer, tablet, mobile).
