Overview
This personal project focuses on redesigning the digital experience of Explora – The Children’s Museum of Rome.
The primary goal was to streamline the ticket purchasing process and design a more engaging, intuitive homepage tailored to the needs of parents and school staff. Alongside this, I proposed a refreshed brand identity rooted in the museum’s philosophy of learning through play, ensuring consistency across both digital and physical touchpoints.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Context & problem
Explora is a well-loved children’s museum in Rome. While it has recently updated its visual identity, the current website feels outdated and misaligned with the museum’s playful and exploratory mission.
PAIN POINTS
My role
I was responsible for both UX and brand design:
KEY RESPONSABILITIES
Research: conducted a UX audit of the existing website and a competitive analysis.
Strategy and brand: developed a refreshed identity system inspired by learning through play.
UX Design: redesigned the homepage and simplified the ticket purchase flow, applying the new brand across the experience.
Design process
Phase I:
Research & analysis
Before jumping into design, I took a step back to understand where Explora’s digital experience was falling short. I began with a UX audit of the existing site, navigating it as a parent or teacher might, and quickly uncovered several friction points.
The UX audit revealed confusing navigation, a complex ticket flow, and inconsistent branding. To fix this, I analyzed leading museums and found key UX strategies to improve engagement and simplify the experience:
Clear, prominent CTAs to reduce friction and guide users toward important actions.
Intuitive navigation that helps users quickly find what they need, such as events and exhibitions.
Simplified purchase flow with progress indicators and visible dates/times to build trust and reduce drop-offs.
Transparent order summaries that allow users to easily review and modify their selections.
Consistent branding to create an emotional connection.
Phase II:
Branding
Explora’s identity is rooted in its belief in learning through exploration and play. This inspired the core values: fun, discovery, curiosity, and growth, guiding every design choice.
The logo, built from simple geometric shapes, reflects building blocks and experimentation. These shapes interact and transform, mirroring the playful, ever-changing nature of children’s learning. Like kids exploring through play, the visual system embodies the museum’s dynamic and joyful spirit.
Phase III
Ideation
This phase focused on reimagining the homepage and ticket purchase flow through wireframes, laying out clear structures and user paths to address the pain points identified earlier.
Phase IV
In this phase, the wireframes are brought to life with full-color visuals, typography, and imagery, reflecting the museum’s fresh identity. The design emphasizes clarity, trust, and engagement, while creating a cohesive and inviting experience across all key sections, including the homepage and ticket purchase flow.
Impact and learnings
Reflecting on this project, I identified several key learnings that will guide my future work:
1.
Reducing the ticket purchase flow from 7 to 4 steps clarified each interaction. While this was a concept project, it illustrates how thoughtful UX decisions can impact usability and reduce potential friction.
2.
Finding high-quality images was challenging, so I experimented with AI-generated visuals using Nano Banana. This solution allowed me to maintain a consistent and high-quality visual language across the project.
3.
As this was a university project, the original branding concept hadn’t been fully realized. I adjusted colors and fonts to create a more harmonious and contemporary visual identity, highlighting the importance of thoughtful execution.