MUSE 389/589: Seminar in Museum Studies | Dr. Susan Frankenburg, Professor
Etienne Sirois, Maddie Jones, Myles Jude, Albert Lopez, Dylan Bogash, Jacob Sobel, Norah Harson
Illinois Distributed Museum, Client
Consulting + Proposed Redesign
About the museum:
The Illinois Distributed Museum (IDM) is a scalable website for interpreting the Urbana-
Champaign campus in terms of innovation. It ties locations, built landscapes, museums, exhibits,
archives, objects, and digital resources from across campus and across time into a series of
narratives and exploratory pathways that supplement and enhance, but do not replace, existing
university programs and museums. It enables users with different backgrounds and interests to
learn about the processes, products and impacts of innovation at the University of Illinois in
relation to other locations, events, people and the nonacademic world. The IDM is designed to be a campus-wide participatory project where units can contribute compelling stories of current and past innovation (broadly conceived) directly to the website.
Champaign campus in terms of innovation. It ties locations, built landscapes, museums, exhibits,
archives, objects, and digital resources from across campus and across time into a series of
narratives and exploratory pathways that supplement and enhance, but do not replace, existing
university programs and museums. It enables users with different backgrounds and interests to
learn about the processes, products and impacts of innovation at the University of Illinois in
relation to other locations, events, people and the nonacademic world. The IDM is designed to be a campus-wide participatory project where units can contribute compelling stories of current and past innovation (broadly conceived) directly to the website.
The consulting work completed optimizes the IDM and addresses the following challenges:
To divide and reorganize tours into digital tours, digital exhibitions/galleries, and walking tours,
each with their own standardization guidelines and templates or wireframes in order to
increase depth, quality, and engagement by incorporating clear explanatory frameworks and/or
sensical touchpoints; a marketing plan for the IDM that uses a series of social media outlets for specific market segments; and create a plan for a physical display case in the main library to advertise the museum and its new updates.
each with their own standardization guidelines and templates or wireframes in order to
increase depth, quality, and engagement by incorporating clear explanatory frameworks and/or
sensical touchpoints; a marketing plan for the IDM that uses a series of social media outlets for specific market segments; and create a plan for a physical display case in the main library to advertise the museum and its new updates.
Concept Mapping the Museum:
Reimagined user experiences: Wireframes for the new site
In order to create a more functional and impactful Illinois Distributed Museum (IDM) experience for all visitors, several organizational challenges needed to be addressed. These included creating a clear flow to the museum to more closely mirror a traditional museum design, reimagining the access to website content within the galleries of the museum, and creating an appealing physical exhibition to draw in more museum users. As a result of this project, suggestions and illustrations for a concept map, designs for the online exhibits, and incorporating spatial sensibility for the online platform have resulted in deliverables to guide new developments within the museum. Deliverables produced from this design process have been developed in the form of wireframes, concept maps, and other visualizations to guide the development of website organization and graphic standards.
The Physical Exhibition: Main Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Throughout May 2024, samples of the the Museum's offerings, were on display for visitors to learn more about the newly redesigned museum. This included an explanation of the changes, how to navigate the online museum, and features of some new exhibits.
