labs@atheron:~/industries/arts-culture/design$ design --research --prototype

Open collections

A collection people can search, on any screen, with any ability.

An online collection is often the first place people meet your museum, and many of them use a phone, a screen reader or a keyboard. We research how your visitors search, prototype it, test it with them, and build a collection that works for all of them.

Start a project See the example projects

// what matters here

What is different in this industry.

Tested with visitors

Interviews and prototype tests with the people who use your collection, including people with disabilities.

Built to WCAG 2.2 AA

Pages checked with screen readers, keyboards and zoom, with a list of anything left to fix.

Search people understand

Browse and filter by artist, period, place, medium and theme, in plain words rather than catalogue codes.

One source of records

Published from your collections system, so curators edit a record once.

// example projects

Priced examples for this service.

Each one is hypothetical, labelled as such, and priced live from our rate card. Open any of them in the estimator and make it yours.

Example projectWeb app

Accessible online collection

Hypothetical. Not a client, not a result.

// The problem

A gallery has thousands of works catalogued but almost none online, and its old collection viewer fails on phones and with screen readers.

// What we would build

A public online collection designed with your team and tested with real visitors, including people who use screen readers and keyboards, with search by artist, period, place and theme, published from your collections system so records are kept in one place. Image rights and credit lines show on every work.

// What is in it

User research and a clickable prototype, tested with visitors
Search and browse by artist, period, place, medium and theme
Pages built to WCAG 2.2 AA, checked with screen readers and keyboards
Records published from your collections system, never typed twice
Image rights and credit lines shown with every work
Pages in English and French, or the languages you choose

// Stack

Next.js
Collections system API
IIIF image viewer
Headless CMS
DigitalOcean Toronto

// estimate

Build: ≈ US$48,200 to US$73,700, delivered within 17 weeksCAD 68,600 to 104,900
Hosting: ≈ US$176 a monthCAD 250 a month
Support: ≈ US$1,000 a monthCAD 1,425 a month

Prices in your currency are estimates from today's Bank of Canada rate. All invoicing is in CAD or USD.

Timeline by milestone

Discovery: 2.9 to 3.4 weeks
Design approved: 4.4 to 7.4 weeks
Core features: 1.9 to 2.9 weeks
Full build: 0.9 to 1.9 weeks
Testing and fixes: 0.9 to 1.4 weeks
Launch: 0.9 to 1.4 weeks

How it is paid

Deposit 30%: CAD 20,580 to 31,470
Discovery 6.6%: CAD 4,527.60 to 6,923.40
Design approved 6.6%: CAD 4,527.60 to 6,923.40
Core features 20%: CAD 13,720 to 20,980
Full build 13.3%: CAD 9,123.80 to 13,951.70
Testing and fixes 6.6%: CAD 4,527.60 to 6,923.40
Launch 6.9%: CAD 4,733.40 to 7,238.10
Holdback, 30 days after launch (10%): CAD 6,860 to 10,490

Start from this example

// questions

Questions we get about this.

Can image descriptions be written for screen reader users?

Yes. Each image carries a text description your team writes or approves, shown to screen readers.

Does the online collection meet accessibility law?

We build to WCAG 2.2 AA and report what we checked. Whether that meets a particular law is a question for your own advisers.

Can objects with restricted images still appear?

Yes. A record can appear with its details and a note, without the image, following the rights your registrar records.

Back to the industry: Museums, arts and culture About the service: Product design and UX

// next

Not quite your project?

Tell us what you have in mind. We will come back to you with a range and the questions that would narrow it. Or book a call and talk it through.

Start a project Book a call