Taking a shortcut with Squarespace to enable the microsite rodeo.
I know. I almost had a heart attack, too, just thinking about all the issues in that title, but the story here is one that we all know too well and it’s worth exploring. Let me ask, how many of you are responsible for multiple and ever-growing demands for microsites?
At Brooklyn, I managed to keep the microsite rodeo at bay. I’m not sure how we did it, frankly. We had the same issues there that many face across the industry — a website that was more about the internal needs of staff than the visitors it was meant to serve. The Barnes is no different; our site, as most museum websites, is unwieldy, not quickly malleable, and reflective of internal stakeholders want to publish everything.
It’s clear a website redesign is in our near future, but the question became what to do in the meantime? Website redesigns are not quick processes and there were some immediate needs. In just one example, we were launching a new education program with a retooled class structure, lower pricing, and — for the first time — the opportunities for scholarships. This new education program is a vital and important part of the organization’s strategic plan. Classes were listed on our website, but the website just couldn’t impart how new and different the program actually was because of its restrictive structure.
This situation where we wanted to spend very little time and money, but we needed a bridge — something good enough to make a statement of change, but something easy so we could concentrate on the much larger goal ahead of us.
Squarespace was that answer. It’s hosted, so you can get up and running very fast. Templates are responsive to mobile devices, clean, and anyone can build sites without the need of technical knowledge. Full disclosure, we did work with a freelance designer, so we could get expert eyes on the look and feel, but overall this was the bridge we were looking for and, as a result, the site reflects the “new” that is this new program with a light footprint.
So, if you’ve got microsites on your responsibility list, let me ask one more question — how many are in the graveyard of years past representing technical/creative debt that you just can’t shake, but must eternally keep alive? At the Barnes we are strategizing differently; the microsites are meant to be short term solutions and we’ve agreed once they serve their immediate purpose, they will be retired. We’ve enabled the rodeo for good reason, but we’ve made sure we’re using a lasso for good measure.
All that said, the most important thing is to learn are the lessons that Squarespace can teach us about long term strategies in website redesign. Using Squarespace had me asking — should we be striving for simple story-telling and templates that can act as landing pages in their own right?
I think we’d all agree the answer is “yes,” and we’re about to have the opportunity to shift our thinking given our long term goals. Those won’t be shortcuts, but having taken some gives us the opportunity to ask good questions and learn lessons along the way.
