We had the awesome opportunity to work with The Poe Museum to create a website experience that speaks to both The Poe Museum brand and the writer that it represents.
We sought to understand Edgar Allan Poe as a person but also incorporate the mission and vision of the museum as a whole. Through this research and consultation, we were able to create a design that evoked personality and professionalism.
The website is created in a way that reflects Edgar Allan Poe's story and the desire to illuminate Poe for everyone, evermore.
The Poe Museum is located in Richmond, Virginia, the hometown of Edgar Allan Poe.
Founded in 1922, the Poe Museum’s mission is to “illuminating Poe for everyone, evermore” by interpreting the world’s largest public collection of Poe artifacts, works, belongings and memorabilia (including Poe’s childhood bed, his pocket watch, rare manuscripts, and even a fragment of his coffin!).
The team at the Poe Museum was looking for a new website, as their existing site was in need of an update: the design was dated and no longer reflected the museum’s mission or branding. It was extremely difficult for users to navigate and the site was in need of numerous technical fixes due to their plugins on the Wordpress platform.
The Poe Museum team asked for a new site that met the following criteria:
1. Usability for the staff to make regular updates.
2. Fixing of all the previous technical issues of the site.
3. Called attention to their regular events, and
4. Prioritization of collection pages and online ticket sales.
B&G Collective’s team promptly went to work redesigning the site from the ground up.
Using Figma as a wireframing tool, the team considered the most impactful pages from the old Poe Museum site and strategically created a design + content that was not only modern, but easy for users to navigate and contained the info needed for users to make decisions.
After the wireframe, the build commenced. To satisfy the first requirement, accessibility for The Poe Museum team to make regular updates, we went with a web builder that is easy to use - Elementor. Using this builder we were able to take advantage of the platform’s “element” features. This helped us include some easy-to-manage effects to the Poe Museum website, like integrated carousels and effects.
The Poe team was also fully trained on how to use the new features so that they have the ability to regularly update their site without the aid of a developer.
Overall, The Poe Museum site was built and finished within 90 days after the design phase.... an excellent turnaround for the size and extent of the project. We believe the Poe Museum is now poised to meet the demands of the Richmond Virginia market, and show adults and children alike the profound legacy of Edgar Allen Poe.
