SPRUCED UP: A look at the improvised QM website.
By Anand Holla
As if to crown all the heartening feedback its exhibitions and initiatives have been gathering in the recent past, Qatar Museums won Silver at the fourth Annual International UX (User Experience) Awards in San Francisco last week, for its cool, improvised website.
The UXies are the premier global awards for exceptional digital experience, and are chosen by a rotating panel of expert judges using a five-point voting system and consensus. The fully-transparent process is revealed on the Awards night at the event.
On May 18, Qatar Museums Authority became Qatar Museums (QM), and the website underwent a complete and dazzling transformation (qm.org.qa).
The new brand, developed with brand consultancy firm Wolff Olins, positioned QM as a cultural instigator for the “Creation Generation,” and introduced itself as a contemporary approach to traditional Middle-Eastern culture.
Explaining why it was worthy of a UX Award, QM told the UXies panel: “Qatar’s current status is unique, and with it come unique constraints and requirements. We adapted our creative process to give the client what they needed, whilst adhering to the principles of user-centered design.”
QM continued: “To ensure our solution was tightly tailored to their needs, we approached the research from as many angles as possible. Through a rich set of qualitative and quantitative techniques, we analysed the needs of their stakeholders, staff and users.”
The result, of course, was a website which is “now successfully fostering participation,” and which “firmly positions Qatar Museums as the guiding cultural force in the Gulf region.” The new name, Qatar Museums, also got a boost with by the descriptor — three words that accompanied the logo; Art, Heritage, Creativity.
Using more local faces and places, responsive pages, neat design aesthetics, and a decidedly smooth user experience, QM managed to, what they rightly call, “balance between structure and playfulness,” which in turn encouraged user participation. QM collaborated with Wolff Olins and digital specialists Cogapp to get user research in Qatar, hallway interviews with museum visitors, analytics and expert heuristics, among other aspects.
In their submission to the UXies, Cogapp stated: “Qatar is changing at an extraordinary pace. Its ambitious cultural programme required an online presence that allows users to express their creativity, get involved with local activities, and have a dialogue with the museums. Our challenge was to align these contemporary aspirations with Arabic traditions and heritage. Working closely with QM and Wolff Olins, we created a website which is bold and playful, whilst respecting the distinctive character and aesthetics of the region. A detailed six-month research programme, conducted in both Doha and London, gave us the understanding we needed to then design and implement the new website.”
For instance, the new QM logo was built from geometric shapes used in arabesque art and architecture. On picking up the Silver Award at the UXies, QM in its blog said, “We are in good company — the Grand Prize went to Virgin Atlantic, and Gold Awards were given to Google and SAP.”
The UXies awards ceremony consists of an inspiring afternoon of talks by finalists and judges, combined with an evening showcase of the most exceptional 2014 projects and people. The UXies seeks to inspire all technologists to create elegant, human-centered products that solve real customer problems by showcasing next-generation digital products, honouring and celebrating with the most talented UX innovators and highlighting exceptional UX best practices.
