This project was a cooperation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam
It is a new concept for the vast digital archive of the Harvard Art Museums. The collection features over 230.000 digitized art works with accompanying meta-data. For this project we focused on the Bauhaus Collection, containing 32.696 artworks. The concept is a feasible design-solution that expands existing services with improved or new features.
In addition to our presentation at the MIT, we had the great opportunity to present and discuss our results with Laura Muir, the Research Curator for Academic and Public Programs at the Harvard Art Museum as conclusion of this project.
The focus is around three main topics: discover, learn and educate. The first one, discover, is about exploring the archive to find new and interesting art. The second one, learn, is about enabling easier learning on the platform. The last and third one is about using the tool to educate others.
Landing Page · First contact
Whether you know nothing about Bauhaus or are already familiar with the topic, the minimalistic landing page with an introduction video and stats about the collection is a solid start for any level of expertise.
Multiple Views · See what you want how you want it
Every user has a different preference when it comes to exploring a collection. With multiple views we wanted to enable everyone to have the best experience possible. The grid view displays objects very space efficiently and makes it easy to get a quick overview of the collection. The timeline, as the name implies, gives you a good sense of when and in which order the different artworks were created. The correlation view can put things into perspective by combining and clustering work by the chosen metrics. Lastly the detail view puts the work front and center and offers additional information, again as chosen by the user.
Masonry Scroll · Visually Striking, Space Efficient and Chronological
Telling a story often requires the right chronological order. This usually doesn’t play well in a grid with various image aspect ratios unless you are willing to waste a lot of space by adhering to a strict grid. The Masonry Scroll combines the best of both worlds by lining up the top row through different scroll speeds for each column.
Annotations from curators · Telling stories
Curated Collections are not just algorithms putting together artworks which have something in common. They are designed to feel like guided tours and the curator has the chance to offer relevant information and context to you with curator annotations on each artwork.
Rich Metadata · Unlocking the Potential of Data
Having a lot of additional data for artworks is great, however most of the time it’s hidden away in tables or a wall of text. By grouping and reusing the data for additional features it can become more valuable to the user.
Translation tool · Being multilingual
When you come across an artwork with foreign language you will likely want to know what it means. Instead of just putting a translation somewhere else, this concept lets you simply hover over the word in question and will show you the translation right in place.
Keyword search · Finding exactly what you want
Searching for something specific can be very difficult when you don’t even know what exactly you are looking for. With the keyword based search you can easily drill down your results by getting more specific. The search results are clustered in different categories to help you find what you are looking for, these can also be added to your query by simply clicking on them.
Visual timeline · Know where you came from
Sometimes you can get completely lost while browsing through collections, related artist or similar pieces and you might be wondering: “How the hell did I get here?” To easily retrace your steps and find content that you might want to revisit, there is a visual representation of your journey through the Bauhaus collection.
Team
A project with Alexander Dreymann, Fabian Dinklage, Patrick Schneider. My roles in the team were mainly the concept design, personas, motion design and presenting.
