Sector(s)
Visit the site
Visit the siteLaunched more than 10 years ago when Natural History Museum Utah (NHMU) opened the doors of its new home, the Rio Tinto Center, the museum’s website was due for an update—not to mention a Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 migration. Along with a fresh design and improved navigation, NHMU tasked Aten with replicating the vibe of the museum’s unique architecture and interactive experiences via the redesigned website. On the backend, stakeholders needed a powerful and intuitive authoring experience that would empower internal editors to craft engaging content for years to come.
About the project
Strategy for a new site to last
To meet NHMU’s navigation and content-structure demands—and to ensure that the site effectively mirrored the compelling nature of the physical experience—Aten completed a comprehensive content-types audit, devised a thorough content plan, and presented NHMU with a site map showing stakeholders where each type of content would live in the new design.
This strategy work helped NHMU cull its 68 content types down to a more manageable 10 options and led to a three-pronged navigational approach for museum visitors, those interested in collections, and others seeking memberships and volunteer opportunities.
Featuring an intuitive mega menu, the navigation and site structure allowed visitors to effortlessly locate and explore their desired content and helped forge a connection both online and in the physical environment between the facility’s exhibits and collections.
Digital design that reflects the physical space
Aten designers were tasked with not only bringing the site up to modern design standards but also developing a look and feel that would carry the design well into the next decade. They employed a design exploration phase where they secured stakeholder input on proposed themes, colors, typography, etc. to help inform their decisions.
Designers drew inspiration from the colors, shapes, and angles found in the museum architecture and local geography. Compelling images and videos and a full-width website layout drew visitors deeper into the content and offered a more in-depth look at the collections via photo galleries comprising bold, beautiful images and minimal yet informative text. Featuring simple content and CTAs, clean lines, plenty of white space, and high contrast throughout, the design offered a streamlined and forward-thinking aesthetic.
Why Drupal was chosen
The NHMU staff had built expertise in Drupal and changing their CMS during a redesign wasn't an option for their team. While they loved the functionality and flexibility Drupal offered, they hoped for a better authoring experience and Aten had the perfection solution in Mercury Editor, their bespoke drag-and-drop Drupal publishing module.
Along with transitioning the site from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9, Aten developers needed to improve the publishing experience for NHMU staff. And rather than funneling all of the work through a couple of NHMU staff, stakeholders hoped to democratize the content, assigning content responsibilities to multiple teams and devising a process that links specific content to respective stakeholders.
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
Key modules/theme/distribution used:
As part of the Drupal 9 migration, developers baked Aten’s bespoke authoring tool—Mercury Editor—into the authoring experience. Doing so allows NHMU staff to easily drag and drop content components into pages, thereby simplifying the authoring process. In addition, developers tagged content and assigned it to various NHMU teams, providing a clear delineation of content responsibilities.
