Ideally, every agile project should end with a retrospective, to look back on the project, addressing successes, tensions and areas for improvement. This blog article focuses on the perspective of the various specialists involved on the client side: Serge German (Project Owner), Sabrina Peterer (Project Manager Digitalisation and Visitor Experience) and Clelia Kanai (Head of Marketing and Communication).

From technical necessity to strategic opportunity
The website of the Museum fĂŒr Gestaltung ZĂŒrich, which needed to be replaced, was designed over 7 years ago and launched at the beginning of 2018. Many things have evolved, and not only from a technological standpoint, as Sabrina outlines: “The museum’s (especially digital) offerings and the requirements for use and editorial management have changed significantly. It was time for a new website, “reestablished as the museum’s central platform for digital communication and providing a solid technical foundation for future developments.”

Choosing the right agency in terms of technical skills, resources and way of working
Our selection was made through an invitation-only process. Sabrina explains: “We were looking for an agency that, alongside meeting essential basic requirements, focused on agile processes, possessed the necessary skills and resources to realise the project, and could guarantee reliable operation and ongoing development.. In this project, like many I was PO for, agility was a key factor in the selection process, not to mention a reason for success.” Another key factor is trust, as the client phrases it: “A key factor for us was the trust in Liip’s know-how for reliable website operation and support, due to the agency's size. We were not disappointed and could count on a solid partner.”

The challenges of digital transformation in the cultural sector
The website is often part of a broader digital transformation process for our clients. This is also true in the cultural sector. Clelia describes it: “Digital content has great potential to enrich the user experience and offers new ways to tell stories or convey knowledge. Adjusting established processes often poses a central challenge, especially in the context of digital transformation. Sometimes the initial effort required is a barrier, even though digital tools promise efficiency gains and reduced workload through automation. For example, interfaces enable the error-free distribution of content without manual intervention, but require a well-thought-out and consistently implemented data structure.”

Focusing on user needs to achieve Progress
In this project, we quickly realised that we were aligned on fundamental principles essential for creating a website or any digital tool. Clelia explains: “Conceptually, progress was achieved by focusing on concrete user needs, including accessibility and multilingualism. Research, testing, and iteration work optimised UI/UX.” This benefits more than just visitors to the website. “Behind the scenes, the new CMS created a foundation for efficient, future-proof data management. The active use of the site will reveal how well the CMS establishes itself as a central storytelling tool and content hub for the museum. The intuitive operation and low onboarding effort for new editors, whose numbers continue growing, have already proven their value.”

Iterative approach, user research and data dtructuring are key elements
Digital tools imply ever-changing needs and technical possibilities, and it is essential to have an approach that best deals with this reality. As Sabrina outlines: “An iterative approach and continuous development are advisable. Researching user needs is essential, they form the backbone of the project
. This foundation enables goal-oriented planning and easier prioritisation between musts, shoulds, and coulds during development. The backend, particularly data structuring, should also be carefully reviewed.”

A Website for a design museum: good design and more
The demands on design and UX/UI were naturally high, as we are dealing with a design museum. Sabrina explains: “Good design is important to us. Many proven principles are rooted in traditional print products, which are also applied to parts of the CI/CD. These principles are not always suitable for digital applications, so new approaches were necessary. Usability was prioritised over visual design when in doubt. A set of multiple design principles was developed to bridge the worlds of UX/UI and visual design, although it led to additional work as some elements required extra adjustments.”

One of the goals is to convey the real-world experience of the exhibitions online. Sabrina explains: “The feeling of calmness and focus was identified as central to visitors’ experience. This was addressed through clearly structured content, an understated design, and good UI. The website provides an optimal framework for digital and analogue content, following the principle: First functional information, then inspiration.”

The museum also has an educational mission, which the website reflects. “The website mainly offers information and insights into the museum’s extensive exhibition program. Exhibition pages offer layered information: visual impressions (e.g., hero videos updated regularly), text descriptions, video insights, and practical visitor information.”

Accessibility
A website’s accessibility is crucial, even more so when accessibility and inclusion are core of the client’s strategy. This has led to the implementation of the following developments, under the guidance of Liip’s accessibility expert:

  • Expanded multilingualism (German/English/French/Italian)
  • Editorial: Shortened and structured texts; added content like audio descriptions
  • Accessibility information for events, made visible with icons directly in the calendar

The website’s accessibility follows the WCAG A+ standard, meaning the platform is perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

From concept to implementation in 4 sprints
Overall, the website reaches the initial design goal of offering UX/UI journeys better matched to real user needs. This phase was really inspiring, it was then time to implement this vision, under the supervision of Serge on the client’s side. As he outlines: “Implementation brought challenges, especially realising the desired features within the budget. There was often a conceptual gap between design drafts and feasible/desired implementation, requiring continuous adjustments. There were also discrepancies between expected logic/automation and manual content management.”

Content Creation, page layout and translations: Blökkli and Drupal for the win
We recommended Blökkli, an open-source block editor that Liip recently developed for content management. As Serge describes: “It is a joy to see how easily diverse content can be created consistently using Blökkli (...) Little had to be migrated since the website’s content was fundamentally revised. The pages were mainly created with the Blökkli editor. Thanks to its intuitive operation and powerful visual capabilities, onboarding was quick and easy.”

The website was already in three languages, German, French and English. Italian was added to the new website, with relevant visitor information in four languages; service information is mainly in German and English. As Serge explains: “Drupal allows easy creation and management of translations. A DeepL module enabled fast translation of large amounts of text without copy-pasting.” However, he also highlights that: “Translation quality limitations made an additional editorial process necessary.”

Improvements and outlook
No project can be perfect, and my PO experience shows that misunderstandings can occur at various stages. As good as our UX/UI expertise was, the client team “wished for more strategic-conceptual support, especially concerning unresolved issues between design and implementation, which caused unexpected additional efforts on our side.”

Although the new website meets most of the museum’s requirements, there are wishes for additional features or different prioritisation of resources. Nevertheless, after a soft launch, initial feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive, both internally and externally. Identified problems and criticisms were mostly addressed and solved early on, with the project team continuously gathering feedback through expanded reporting.”

A retro is also an opportunity to look to the future, strengthened by this experience and this new digital communication tool—the final word from our client: “A key challenge will be continuous development and transformation. Efficient digital content management—across various platforms and media used for communication, education, and interaction—will be crucial. Our vision is a central content platform for the museum, for which the new Drupal-based website provides a pilot and foundation. Scaling and automation (also using AI) will play an increasingly important role.”