Raleigh’s N.C. Museum of Art (NCMA) recently collaborated with Wilmington-based web firm Wide Open Technologies and Raleigh-based designer Leo Hageman of Re:think on a robust website overhaul, according to a news release.

NCMA sought to improve navigation, mobile accessibility and overall aesthetic, which for an art museum is vital, officials said.

“Part of our mission is to serve visitors and the people of North Carolina and beyond by creating inspiring encounters with art,” said museum spokeswoman Emily Kowalski. “This interaction needs to occur both on campus and online.”

NCMA’s new website provides users with multiple gateways and tools for accessing information on art exhibits and taking actions online such as buying concert tickets, no matter if users are accessing the site on a desktop computer or from their smartphone. Herein lies the challenge for the web design and development team, which were tasked with organizing the information in a way that served a diverse set of users.

“With so much to see and take part in at NCMA, we wanted to make it easy for users to navigate to their desired content,” said Hageman, designer and owner of Re:think.

The user experience was a critical lens in which the team used to evaluate each component of the new NCMA site. Site speed and page load times were critical.

“We moved NCMA to a modern technology platform, which reduces the number of behind-the-scenes steps required to load each page,” said Clinton Paquin, developer from Wide Open Technologies. “Our biggest challenge was working with NCMA to consolidate their various web services onto one platform, making it as efficient as possible for users to locate content and more easier for NCMA staff to maintain.”