The Goal
A Modern TYPO3 Website with Everything That Matters
With the relaunch, the House of History aimed to further develop its online presence. Current requirements in terms of web design, usability, and increasingly mobile web usage had to be addressed through a fully responsive design. The web design was expected to seamlessly align with the corporate design of the museum’s print materials.
Since internal expertise with the open-source content management system TYPO3 was already available, the implementation was to be carried out using this CMS.
A key objective was to place the service aspect clearly in the foreground. Users should be able to navigate the new website easily and intuitively. Short click paths were intended to give visitors quick access to the information they are looking for and allow them to conveniently use the services provided by the museum. Alongside making the online offering more appealing for a highly diverse target audience, a solution was also needed for the future handling of the previously separate websites for individual special exhibitions.
A Museum Visit Begins with the First Click
Based on the briefing and objectives of the House of History, we began our conceptual phase. We quickly identified a new goal: The website should present the state museum as a cultural highlight, make the place itself tangible online, and spark users’ curiosity for an in-person visit. In short: The website must lead the visitor into the museum. Frank und Freunde therefore expanded the relaunch objectives to include this central aspect and developed a holistic digital strategy aligned with it.
The previously implemented microsites for special exhibitions were integrated into the main website to strengthen the overall presence. The design concept enables these individual exhibition themes to be brought together under the umbrella of the museum brand.
The content structure of the new TYPO3 website was adapted to the various target groups and now provides, alongside an area for regular museum visitors, a clearly defined section for educational purposes. A direct and intuitive navigation significantly improves usability. Based on the existing corporate design, we created a TYPO3 website that not only offers a future-proof foundation for ongoing development but is also easy for editors to manage and learn.
Connecting Web Design and Architecture
For the web design, FUF drew inspiration from the museum’s striking interior color scheme, architecture, and spatial atmosphere. This resulted in an immediate visual connection between the physical museum and the digital experience, supporting the overall digital brand development. The three corporate colors—red, violet, and yellow—which also stand out immediately on-site, were incorporated into the main navigation and key areas of the page structure.
Large-format images help structure and break up the extensive information about exhibitions and the museum, serving as eye-catching visual elements.
To accommodate the increasingly mobile user behavior, the web design was developed responsively from the ground up—starting with the small smartphone screen, extending to tablets, and up to large desktop displays.
Bringing the Museum’s Identity into the Digital Space
As online usage—and especially mobile usage—continues to grow, digital brand development has become the central foundation of modern communication. The primary points of contact with visitors and customers are shifting more and more into the digital realm. Public and cultural institutions that fail to present themselves effectively online risk disappearing almost entirely from users awareness.
By building a digital brand, the museum’s established identity can be transferred into the online world, making the corporate website a central element of brand perception and allowing the corporate identity to be experienced digitally. This creates lasting benefits—not only for recognition value but also for essential online marketing factors.
Against this backdrop, we took on the challenge of translating the House of History and its physical visual identity into the digital space. Drawing on the existing print design and the museum’s distinctive architecture, a digital brand was created with a high level of recognizability.
Through this synthesis of museum building and website, visitors take their first step into the museum the moment they land on the homepage. This positive development is also reflected in metrics such as click-through rates, social media reach, and improved search engine rankings.
The Success
Digital Self-confidence for the House of History
Through its successful TYPO3 relaunch, the House of History has now secured a digital presence that reflects its cultural significance. The brand and its unmistakable visual identity were translated into the online space, creating a strong connection between the website and the physical museum. Users gain an immediate impression of the museum experience—including its impressive exhibitions—from their very first visit to the site.
The museum’s unique corporate identity takes center stage, enhancing recognition and strengthening the institution’s overall digital presence.
Project Facts
House of History Baden-Württemberg
URL: www.landesgeschichten.de
4 months Implementation period
Germany's first political-historical state museum
Linking architecture and web design
House of History
Founded in 2002, the Haus der Geschichte Baden-Württemberg is the first political-historical state museum to tell the history of south-western Germany. In addition to the permanent exhibition on the history of the state, the museum delights its visitors with changing special exhibitions on special topics. With its striking and modern architectural style, the Haus der Geschichte is part of the ensemble of museum and government buildings on the Kulturmeile in the heart of Stuttgart.
Target Group
With its changing exhibitions, the Haus der Geschichte appeals to history buffs of all ages. The website's target group is correspondingly diverse and ranges from museum visitors, teachers and pupils who use the educational museum offerings for school education, to media representatives who report on the Haus der Geschichte and its exhibitions.
Tech Facts
Responsive web design with Bootstrap.
TYPO3 6.2.
Individual extension development with Extbase.
Glossary
Corporate design (CD): A company's public image, determined by the design of various communication media and channels.
Corporate identity (CI): Unique identity of a company that is made up of design, communication, behavior and corporate culture.
Digital brand: Transfer of the brand image and brand identity into the digital space, taking into account SEO, social media and usability criteria.
Extbase: Framework of PHP classes for creating TYPO3 extensions.
Bootstrap: Open source framework that provides templates for web design elements based on HTML and CSS.
Special feature //
Integrating temporary action websites
The special exhibitions form a central part of the identity of the Haus der Geschichte, each of which has a completely independent exhibition design. It was a particular design challenge to integrate these into the typical appearance of the Haus der Geschichte.
The design of the special exhibitions is presented in large presentation areas within the new web layout, so that the website forms a neutral framework in which the designed exhibition elements come into their own without falling out of the concept of the presentation or diluting the corporate design.