Augustus Rivers
Active2026

UN Museum — Digital Experience & Web Redesign

Redesign approach for the UN Museum at Geneva: an experience-first, mobile-ready web presence that brings the archives, digital exhibits, and tour booking into one coherent, fast, accessible experience.

Speculative concept — prepared independently by Offlabel, LLC. Not affiliated with the United Nations.

The Brief

  • museum.ungeneva.org presents the history of multilateralism through the UN Geneva archives — digital experiences for PC, tablet, and smartphone, tour booking, and the museum collection.
  • The current site is functional but sits on an older stack than the main ungeneva.org: Drupal 10, no edge caching, and English/French only.
  • The concept modernizes the experience while preserving the archival content and bilingual model.

Audit Findings

  • Drupal 10 — one major version behind the main ungeneva.org (Drupal 11).
  • No edge caching: responses are uncached/private (no Varnish or CDN) — slower page loads than the flagship site.
  • Bilingual EN/FR only — a subset of the 6-language model used on ungeneva.org.
  • Content is experience-driven: immersive digital exhibits targeted to PC/tablet vs smartphone.
  • Archives are the official repository of UN Geneva documents — a deep, structured collection.
  • Separate brand from ungeneva.org — no shared design system.

Approach

  • Refresh the digital exhibits experience-first: mobile-first, immersive but fast, accessible on any device.
  • Reunite the museum with the UN Geneva design language where it makes sense, while keeping a distinct museum identity.
  • Add edge caching + the same modern pipeline as the flagship (WebP/AVIF, responsive images, CDN, HTTP/2-3).
  • Ship WCAG 2.2 AA across both languages with automated testing.
  • Build editor tooling so curators can publish exhibits and tours without engineering.

Deliverables

  • Museum design system (aligned to UN Geneva)
  • Redesigned exhibit templates (PC / tablet / smartphone)
  • Archives & publications templates
  • Mobile-first responsive pass
  • Performance + caching implementation
  • WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility
  • Analytics setup
  • Curator/editor training

Timeline

Discovery 1 wk · Design system 3 wks · Build 6 wks · Migration & QA 3 wks · Launch + handover 1 wk (~14 weeks).

Live redesign conceptCurrent site (reference)