Moon Gallery Foundation is an international cultural platform headquartered in the Netherlands but with a global reach. ts primary mission is to pioneer the creation of the first art gallery on the Moon while fostering the culture of future interplanetary societies.
Today, MOON GALLERY comprises over 50 artists from around the world. IT's endeavors extend beyond exhibitions to include workshops, seminars, themed events, conference participation, and various activities all geared towards making space exploration more accessible and inclusive.
SEED has been collaborating with Moon Gallery since 2018.
The existing Moon Gallery website has been in operation for over 5 years. It was initially designed as a showcase for presenting the works of artists selected to participate in the Lunar mission.
When embarking on a website redesign, we always commence with an in-depth interview with the client. These interviews are a crucial component of the project, largely shaping its success. We had the opportunity to converse with Anna Sitnikova, one of the founders of Moon Gallery Foundation.
Redesigning a website can be likened to renovating an apartment, ranging from minor cosmetic updates to complete wall demolitions and comprehensive restructuring. At our company, we classify website redesigns into the following categories:
1. Full Redesign
This entails a complete overhaul of the website, including content migration if necessary. Depending on the client's preferences, some pages from the old website may remain untouched and seamlessly integrated into the new product's structure and visual concept.
2. Visual Redesign
When focusing on altering the overall visual concept of the site, encompassing the design of pages and individual elements.
3. Technical Redesign
Primarily pertains to backend reconstruction. This involves rectifying and optimizing the source code, fine-tuning the website's engine or CMS, enhancing site loading speed, and so forth.
4. Functional Redesign
Changes affect the website's functionality: site structure and visitor behavior scenarios are altered, the navigation system is improved, new features are added, and existing ones are modernized.
To determine the type of redesign and specify the scope of work, we need to understand what you are dissatisfied with in the current website.
Anna:
The website was created 5 years ago. We made some minor adjustments along the way. After sending the gallery to the ISS, we changed the design of the homepage, adding a photo of the gallery module on board the station. However, the overall website still doesn't have a modern look.
SEED:
Many people believe that visual website redesign is only necessary during rebranding. However, web design is a highly dynamic field. Approaches are constantly changing, new technologies and tools emerge. To stay on trend and remain competitive, it's advisable to conduct a visual website redesign every 2-3 years.
Anna:
It's not just about the website's appearance. Visitors to the site can't immediately grasp who we are and what we do. We ourselves don't have a clear understanding of the user behavior scenario we expect from website visitors.
SEED:
In other words, we are now talking about a functional redesign. There are issues with the site's structure and navigation system. But most importantly, we need to define the goals and the target audience of the website. Please tell us who visits your site and why. Does this align with your business goals? What goals do you aim to achieve through the website redesign?
Anna:
Currently, our main audience primarily consists of our immediate circle—our artists. Each artist has their own page on the website where they share information about themselves and their work. Beyond that, we have fans of their talent, colleagues in the field looking for ideas and inspiration for their work, and our partners in collaborative creative and educational projects.
To successfully fulfill our mission of sending the art gallery to the Moon, we need to gather an audience interested in this project specifically and in popularizing the idea of democratizing space exploration in general. We need to establish a donation system to collect the required funds for the gallery's delivery to the Moon.
For this purpose, we plan to accept invitations to participate in auction activities. Unique art pieces that have been on board a space station attract the attention of affluent collectors, and this is another audience we aim to attract to our website.
SEED:
This is a very interesting challenge both in terms of creating a visual concept and developing user scenarios. Very diverse audiences with different reasons for visiting the website and varying expectations from their visits.
Anna:
It is essential for us that the website becomes conversion-oriented. Not just increasing traffic to the site, but gently guiding visitors to perform specific actions.
SEED:
Speaking of the technical aspect, are there any issues with the current website? Will the updated site remain on WordPress, or are you considering changing the CMS?
Anna:
We haven't discussed changing the CMS. We would like to improve the website's loading speed, but this issue isn't critical at the moment. Our goal is to modernize the administrative part so that artists can independently update the content in their profiles, leaving us with only the editing and moderation function. This will speed up the content updating process on the site. Additionally, we need to consolidate the merchandise store and the donation collection system into a single website. Currently, these are two separate online stores.
SEED:
How do you plan to use the website to address your business needs?
Anna:
The organization of donation collection involves the organization and hosting of various online and offline events. Consequently, we plan to use the website for promoting these events, booking participation, and collecting donations. We also intend to expand our merchandise offerings and facilitate an active exchange of merchandise for donations. To promote the project and maintain ongoing communication with the community, we plan to run a blog.
SEED:
Why has the question of redesign come up now? Perhaps you have undergone or are planning a rebranding?
Anna:
We don't plan to undergo rebranding. However, we do intend to articulate our mission, message, goals, and value system more clearly in the near future. This is related, as I mentioned before, to the start of the campaign to send the art gallery to the Moon. Perhaps we should have addressed the website redesign question earlier, but it's a quite significant project that requires substantial financial and time investments. It wasn't easy to fit it into our business plan.
SEED:
Anna, in what metrics will you measure the success of the redesign?
Anna:
This question has stumped me. I need to discuss it with my colleagues. I will try to answer it at our next meeting.
SEED:
Anna, thank you for your time and detailed answers. The next step will be to analyze the current site's performance indicators, prepare a list of tasks for a complete redesign of your website, estimate the approximate cost of our services, and create a mood board for the project.