Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
Web design, UX review
Reimagining the digital presence of Brown University’s anthropology museum with a focus on access, identity, and experience.
While conducting research for a class, I found myself frustrated with the web interface of Brown University’s anthropology museum, the Haffenreffer. The museum utilizes a collection management software that requires users to access an external website to search or browse the collections. The site’s lack of literal integration is echoed in its design, which diverges significantly from the established visual identity of the main site. From a more functional perspective, the collections site is counterintuitive, finicky, and frustrating to use for both casual browsing and focused research. These issues together compromise user experience and undermine the museum’s mission to make its collections accessible.
My proposed redesign addresses these issues and others. To guide my design process I conducted a review of usability issues, analyzed the needs of 5 user personas (educator, researcher, visitor, student, and faculty member), and identified actionable opportunities for improvement.
