Museum of History NSW is the first project I got the chance to work on when I joined Pollen. The project was already well started and I was to replace one of the designer who initiated the Design System. The goal was at first to deliver a comprehensive and easy to use Design System for the MHNSW team to build the different pages.
A bit of History
MHNSW is a merger of Sydney Living Museums and the NSW State Archives & Records Authority. Pollen has been working with this client for a long while before starting this project, which means they were well aware of the intricacies of dealing with the amount of information that had to be displayed and accessible. Prior to my arrival, the team was already well ahead and had fleshed out all the UX, however we were still waiting for the branding to be finalised externally.
Delivering a seamless experience
Although the UX was fleshed out already, the nature of the project and evolutions meant we had to refine some part of the navigation and structures. I am glad that despite my freshness in the team, Pollen let me rethink some of the experience and trusted me from the get go. Due to this, we solved some interested challenges together, specifically regarding the search as merging 3 data sources can uncover some unexpected difficulties.
Designing with scalability
As mentioned, we aimed to deliver a Design System and allow the MHNSW team to be autonomous. When I started, we had to design with the rebranding happening in the background, which meant we had to think in Design tokens and components even more religiously. Because of deadlines, we were also working closely with the company in charge of developing the website through guidance and feedback. Everything had to be componentised and scalable, which would go through reviews and collaboration with the MHNSW team. Furthermore, the colours of the websites evolve to highlight the different sections while following the colourfulness of the new brand.
Supporting every voices and stories
To encourage the learning of the deep past and present of the region, the MHNSW website relies on big pieces of content that go from historical characters through 3D models of buildings and objects as well as frequent events and exhibitions.
MHNSW aim to tell the history of New South Wales through storytelling while offering differents perspectives. This work has been a massive source of knowledge, both from the historical side but also from the learning gained through the project.
