Van Gogh Museum vangoghmuseum.nl

The Van Gogh Museum has a new site! After building the previous museum website in 2014 and exhibiting Van Gogh's letters in a special way online in 2018, it was time for a major overhaul of the website in 2020. With the entire museum collection, smart features and more possibilities to inspire people with the work and life of Van Gogh.

Impression of the new Van Gogh Museum website

New concept
Together with the internal digital team of the museum and design agency Dept, we worked on a new concept in which Van Gogh's color palette is combined with powerful stories full of interactive images, videos and comparisons.

Van Gogh's brushstrokes on your screen
The new website shows the complete collection of the Van Gogh Museum. It also shows which works are currently in the museum. The paintings, drawings and letters are also easier to search through the use of filters. And with each work, more substantive information is now available for art connoisseurs and interested people. Thanks to the ultra-res storytelling tool Micrio developed by us, visitors can zoom in online to the smallest details of the paintings. This way, even Van Gogh's brushstrokes can be experienced digitally!

Zooming in on Van Gogh's self-portrait thanks to Micrio

Vincent for Scale
For the new website, which is visited 8.5 million times a year, we came up with a new feature that playfully indicates the size of a painting: Vincent for Scale. By placing the painting next to a figure of Van Gogh, who was 1.64 meters tall, visitors can see the true size of the work at a glance.

Thoroughly tested
As with all our digital product development, we have thoroughly tested the redesign. Not only were Polteq testers part of the team; during development, the website has been subjected to a usage test, our Real User Morning. Thanks to this user feedback, we were able to make adjustments in time and correct any ambiguities. In developing the website, extra attention was also paid to the accessibility for users with a disability. The website has been optimized for screen readers who use blind and partially sighted people when navigating.

"The teams at Q42, Dept and the Van Gogh Museum have done a fantastic job. They have built a site that is completely contemporary and that will be at the core of a digital Vincent van Gogh world."

Martijn Pronk, head of digital communication Van Gogh Museum

Awards
In April 2021, the renewed vangoghmuseum.nl won a bronze GLAMi Award, a major international museum prize. Two Webby Awards, the world's most important internet prize, followed in May in the 'Websites and Mobile Sites - Cultural Institutions' category. And in November, the 'European Oscars of the Internet', the Lovie Awards, took home accolades from both the jury and the public in the categories 'Websites - Best Practices' and 'Apps, Mobile Sites & Voice - Best Visual Design '.