Executive Summary
Reimagining Digital Engagement at The Met (Jan 2024 - Apr 2024)
This project revolved around addressing both digital content usability and cross-channel optimization challenges for a globally recognized cultural institution. Working closely with The Met’s Digital Content Team (DCT), we developed strategies to enhance content accessibility and user engagement.
● Content audit
● Persona development
● Content governance and workflow planning
● Final recommendations to enhance cross-platform content integration
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) faced the challenge of staying relevant, attracting diverse audiences, and maintaining their mission. As media consumption shifts, The Met sought to better understand digital trends and how to engage users across various platforms.
We created a comprehensive content strategy that emphasized cross-channel engagement, streamlined content discovery, and leveraged media consumption trends to optimize digital content for engaging audiences across multiple platforms.
Optimized The Met’s digital content, improved user engagement across multiple channels, enriched the non-visitor experience, and aligned content with the museum’s educational and cultural goals. This broadened audience reach, strengthening The Met’s position as a leader in the cultural sector.
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Purpose of Study
Why we did what we did
The Met, as a leading cultural institution, faces increasing challenges in engaging modern audiences across the rapidly evolving digital landscape. With media consumption habits shifting and attention spans shortening, it’s crucial for the museum to stay relevant, reach new audiences, and deepen its connection with existing ones.
We aimed to:
● Support DCT’s position as a strategic partner with other departments at The Met.
● Provide an outsider’s perspective on The Met’s digital content programs and offerings.
● Analyze the content program’s offerings across various channels at both a macro and micro level.
● Develop a set of recommendations that provide both “food for thought” as well as implementable solutions that can help DCT further its mission
Summary of DCT
Our Client - The Met’s Digital Content Team
The team operates under the following key objectives:
Support the Museum’s Mission:
DCT prioritizes the digital presentation of The Met’s collections, creating engaging content that aligns with the museum’s educational and cultural goals.
Storytelling Over Media:
The team emphasizes storytelling, ensuring that The Met’s collections are presented in a way that resonates with audiences, focusing on relevance and meaning.
Audience Engagement:
DCT balances its work across existing audience engagement (66%), reaching new audiences (26%), and supporting the institution (8%).
User-Centered Methodology
To effectively address the museum’s content challenges, we employed a discovery phase that included competitive content analysis, development of detailed personas, and content modeling. We ensured that every content piece aligned with user expectations and needs, while also addressing business goals. For example, we crafted user journeys for various personas including The Creative Processor, The Streamer, and The History Buff to inform our content recommendations.
Persona Development and Audience Segmentation
A large portion of the target audience—what we referred to as “non-visitors”—required tailored content strategies. This persona was not actively visiting the museum but still engaged with similar cultural institutions digitally. To attract these users, we explored cross-channel content strategies that tapped into social media trends, younger demographics, and remote digital engagement.
UX and Content Strategy Integration
Improve the findability and usability of content across digital touchpoints, from the website to voice-based interfaces and mobile experiences.
Approach
We focused on optimizing content accessibility, both visually and contextually. For example, our analysis revealed inconsistencies in hyperlink design and navigation. By introducing visual clarity and interactive elements like language filters and more prominent link styling, we improved overall site usability.
Results:
● Improved user flow with shortcut buttons for quick navigation
● Simplified the navigation structure, reducing cognitive load
● Enhanced multichannel integration, particularly with audio guides and mobile interactions
Mobile Content Optimization
As more users engage with content via mobile, we emphasized the need for adaptive design. One of our recommendations was to reduce the number of taps needed to access deeper content and ensure the mobile site layout was optimized for a variety of screen sizes. We also suggested improving load times by optimizing image sizes and ensuring icons and buttons were consistent across sections.
Cross-Channel Content Strategy
To ensure a seamless user experience, we recommended expanding content into platforms like TikTok and Instagram, tailoring specific messages to younger audiences. By leveraging these platforms, we created short-form engaging content that sparked interest and directed users back to The Met’s main site.
Content Governance and Workflow Planning
Challenge: Maintaining consistency across thousands of content pieces.
Solution: Implementing a robust content governance model, which included:
● Content workflows that integrated with internal teams
● Established editorial guidelines to maintain brand voice consistency across platforms
● Metadata strategies for improving searchability and SEO performance across platforms
Final Recommendations
1. Create a Vision Statement
Develop a clear and fully developed vision statement for The Met’s Digital Content Team (DCT) to guide internal strategies and align all departments to a common purpose.
2. Page Positioning and Element Order
Reorganize content on web pages by placing essential information, such as language options, hours, and customer service, in more visible areas like headers. This provides quicker access for users and improves overall usability.
3. Artist Spotlights on “About The Met” Page
Introduce a series highlighting individual artists from The Met’s collection. This feature would provide biographical information, notable works, and insights into their artistic contributions, enhancing user engagement with art history.
4. Audio Guide Enhancements
• QR Code Accessibility: Place QR codes directly on individual artworks’ description boards to allow for easy access to corresponding audio guides.
• Search by Topic: Add a search option that allows users to explore audio guides related to their specific interests, even if they are not at the museum.
• Seamless Audio Guide Switching: Implement a feature for users to seamlessly switch between different audio guides within the same collection as they move through the exhibits.
5. Leverage AI to Improve User Experience
Explore the use of AI-driven conversational interfaces to help users navigate The Met's website more efficiently, provide information on upcoming exhibitions, and answer general visitor questions.
6. Content Categorization for Audio Guides
Reorganize the audio guide interface by grouping playlists into categories such as “Current Exhibits,” “Permanent Collection,” and “Past Exhibits” to streamline navigation and create a more intuitive user experience for both in-person and remote visitors.
7. Augmented Reality (AR) Integration
Integrate AR technology into the audio guide experience to provide visitors with additional digital content overlaid on physical exhibits. This could include virtual reconstructions or multimedia presentations to enhance engagement.
8. Wearable Device Compatibility
Explore the potential for audio guides to be compatible with wearable devices, like Apple Vision Pro, allowing visitors to enjoy a hands-free and more immersive experience while navigating the museum.
9. Interactive Content Across Platforms
Incorporate interactive elements such as videos, 360-degree tours, and audio clips across platforms to enrich user engagement. Link related content between The Met’s website and social media channels to create an integrated experience.
10. Technical Term Lookup Feature
Implement a feature that allows users to click on technical terms to see definitions or clarifications without leaving the current page. This would encourage exploration and make complex content more accessible.
11. Content Governance Plan
Develop a content governance plan that standardizes content creation across the organization. This ensures consistency in brand voice, establishes clear workflows, and provides guidelines for content contributors throughout the institution.
12. Mobile Content Optimization
Optimize The Met’s mobile content by reducing navigation depth, improving load times, ensuring adaptive design, and enhancing content presentation to ensure a seamless experience for mobile users.
13. Cross-Channel Content Integration
Implement stronger integration between website content and platforms like YouTube. This includes linking content across channels and including calls-to-action that direct users from one platform to another for further exploration.
14. Interactive Maps and Voice-Activated Assistance
Add interactive maps on digital kiosks or smartphones to help visitors locate exhibits and exits easily. Additionally, offer voice-activated assistance that provides verbal directions to visitors on their mobile devices.
15. Content Production Process Optimization
Streamline the content production process by clearly defining ownership, required resources, timing, reviews, approvals, and channel strategies. This will ensure efficient content creation and alignment with The Met’s business goals.
16. Restructure the Exit Experience
Improve visitor navigation and wayfinding by introducing interactive maps and voice-activated assistance systems to guide users through the museum, making the visitor experience smoother and less overwhelming.
Impact on Business Goals
By enhancing the content production process and governance structure, we provided solutions that align with The Met's strategic goals of reaching new audiences and deepening engagement with existing users. Our strategies also helped in promoting inclusivity, making digital content accessible to a global audience.
Summary of DCT
Our Client - The Met’s Digital Content Team
The team operates under the following key objectives:
Support the Museum’s Mission:
DCT prioritizes the digital presentation of The Met’s collections, creating engaging content that aligns with the museum’s educational and cultural goals.
Storytelling Over Media:
The team emphasizes storytelling, ensuring that The Met’s collections are presented in a way that resonates with audiences, focusing on relevance and meaning.
Audience Engagement:
DCT balances its work across existing audience engagement (66%), reaching new audiences (26%), and supporting the institution (8%).
Key Themes & Top Takeaways
A broad-based assessment of The Met’s digital content
Our analysis identified several key themes:
Key Themes & Take-Aways: Global
1. Effective content hierarchy
Pages from home to specific articles follow an effective broad/image-heavy to more narrow scopes and more text.
2. Engaging header, concise page summary
Header presents a different typeface, a short summary for the workshops/exhibition, and an informative graphic for context.
3. Shortcut buttons provided to skip to sections
Buttons with the section title are provided so that users can jump to their desired section without navigating deeper.
4. Page could have a filter for language upfront
Adding a language filter on the header helps foreign visitors who speak other languages.
5. Unclear hyperlinks on page header titles
Header titles look like regular text; they are only animated into hyperlinks when one hovers their cursor over the text.
6. Sometimes page titles don’t match the navigation menu title.
Mismatches: Articles, Videos, and Podcasts (Perspectives) / Curatorial Areas (Collection Areas), Performances (no title)
Key Themes & Take-Aways: Special Exhibitions
1. Related links to discover more
Recommended articles are effectively linked, particularly, under the Conservation page there is a dedicated, noticeable tab for people interested in fellowships and internships in conservation.
2. Multiple ways to access key information
Contact information is provided three times, in case a user has a relevant clothing item to add to the exhibition. It’s located in the body paragraph, “Contact us”, and “Stay connected”
3. Extensive references provided for items in show
The Exhibitions dropdown contains two full paragraphs on previous exhibitions in different years that show cased the clothing items, as well as number of visitors.
4. Lacking full details about the exhibition; limited physical context provided
Graphics and images are static, with limited information about the exhibition space or moving elements. The individual items are also vaguely labeled, i.e. “hat”, “shirt” with no additional context.
5. Exhibition images are on a separate page from the larger textual content; the introductory page is lacking visual context
The first page is text heavy, with drop downs to collapse larger sections. Visuals about the exhibit are limited to just 3 on the entire site; more exhibition images can only be accessed through “Explore the collection”
Audience Analysis: The “Non-Visitor” Persona
“Cracking the code” of this elusive persona
There are several dimensions to the “non-visitor” that we considered.
Culturally-inclined: a person who is engaged in the broader contemporary cultural landscape/conversation and has connection to some aspects that are art museum adjacent: films, literature, theater, performances, fashion, urban art, etc. Mainly, people involved in creative pursuits but not necessarily tied to the traditional art world.
Capturing interest: The non-visitor may never set foot in The Met (or any museum such as The Met) but there are opportunities to engage the person in ways that relate to their specific interests or where what The Met has to offer intersects with their particular interests (social justice, societal wellbeing, mutual belonging, being a part of something bigger than themselves).
Digital content: There are opportunities to reach the non-visitor, especially those who are geographically dispersed both nationally and globally with digital content that is targeted to their interests and media consumption habits.
The attention economy: Exploring - and exploiting in the best sense of the verb - opportunities in social media to go where the non-visitors are. What will best spark their interest?
Going where the non-visitors go: There are great opportunities to explore different content channels - both digital and analog - to increase awareness and engagement with The Met in new, unexplored, and unexpected ways (e.g. local/regional community festivals, concerts, food events, pop-ups, etc). It’s essentially going where the concentrations are and where people would be open to receiving a content message.
We arrived at four potential “non-visitor” persona types based on our briefings, research, and brainstorming activities.
The “Creative Processor”: An individual who is a professional or aspiring professional in a creative field (architecture, fashion, graphic design, authors, information scientists, etc.) who understands the creative process of their particular metier and might seek inspiration from other creative venues and offerings such as The Met presents (both traditional and non-traditional).
The “History Buff”: An individual who has inclinations, affinities, and pursuits that are outside the traditional art world but where some of those dimensions may intersect with what The Met offers both in both traditional and non-traditional presentations (e.g. “The Art of the Great Depression”) but who may feel that The Met has nothing to do with their interests.
The “Streamer”: An individual who is a high consumer of digital content outside of the traditional “high culture” realms (Netflix, Podcasts) but also who his highly engaged with social media such as Instagram and TikTok.
The “Non-cultural Worker in a Cultural Institution”: This individual is a professional in a discipline that is an essential part of a cultural institution’s operations (technology, finance, human resources, facilities) but the work that this individual does has little if any to do with the actual mission of the organization for whom the individual works (e.g. this person could work in retail, legal, consulting, or a variety of other sectors) but what this individual does has little if any connection to the actual mission of the organization.
Finally, there are a few other considerations that are wrapped in the previous non-visitor personas.
Geographic non-specificity: The “non-visitor” could be any individual from anywhere across the globe or around the country who may never have been or will visit New York City and The Met’s physical location. (For example, the prevalence of the popularity of The Met’s social media channels, in particular Instagram, in Brazil.)
Cross-cultural but global trends: The “non-visitor” also is most likely an individual in the broader “younger” category of Millennials, Gen-Y, Gen-Z, or the next generation of content consumers for whom borders (by any definition) are somewhat meaningless. These generations seek inspiration from a variety of sources and don’t distinguish among traditional lines of demarcation among cultures or generations.
