New National Gallery Website
Studio Bureau
It is no surprise for Creative Review do a piece about the re-design of the National Gallery's website. It is exactly like the kind of print-derived website that so often receives praise in the design press. This site is elegant and restrained (much like the Gallery itself), however some of the navigation and features are SO restrained that you might miss them all together.
Apparently Studio Bureau worked on both the information architecture, and on the design of the site, which is impressive. It is no small task to make over 2,300 paintings viewable online.
A particularly nice feature is the monthly 'Focus Painting'. For example this month's focus is 'Gifts'. We learn that Van Gogh painted one of his sunflowers canvases for the guest bedroom for a friend. I enjoyed using the zoom feature, which allowed me see super-close up views of Van Gogh's canvases. This was v cool but in my opinion, the interface is a bit too discreet, perhaps even anally retentively so.
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posted by Martin Jacobson
on 16 September 2009
Nice site - shame about the shop
Like in a real-world museum shop, the on-line shop looks nothing like the rest of the site, and once there, you've lost the navigation bar, so there's No Way Back! It's reminiscent of P.T.Barnam's famous sign saying "This Way to the Egress"!
And I noticed that on the Corot-to-Monet page, there are some links that don't light-up on rollover, contrary to the rest of the site. Bit more editing needed, I think.
Overall, I liked the design - but I was confused at first because I wasn't sure whether it was a virtual gallery, or a site publicising the real gallery. In fact, it turns out to be both!