The V&A meets Generation Alpha
Which Taylor Swift song are you? How well do you know these retro phone games? And how does a Polaroid camera actually work?
It's not very often that I get to product manage websites designed from scratch, so I'm particularly excited about this launch… After almost 12 months of working with Victoria and Albert Museum, mused - a new website built to engage Generation Alpha in topics that the V&A is an expert on - is finally live.
Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, mused is a content-rich, interactive website that invites 10-14 year olds to explore the V&A’s world of creativity through quizzes, challenges, articles and videos – through topics and content we know they are interested in, now.
mused aims to meet people where they are – based on their searches, and what’s trending on TikTok and instagram
Designing for young people’s interests
mused was designed and built with the help of brilliant young people in 5 user research and usability testing rounds. Separately, we’d put together a panel of young trend-spotters who regularly told us ‘what’s hot on TikTok and instagram’ to feed the content team with the latest trends and ideas, around the clock.
These insights, coupled with some excellent work from SEOMG!, the SEO agency who helped us map out what users in this age group search for, and where we can build some “SEO juice”, has resulted in a site that is miles away from anything to do with a stuffy old museum, or even – an intended learning angle.
Why? It’s been designed to:
cater specifically to young people’s interests around the kind of themes the V&A has authority to cover
find the users interested in these themes where they already engage with this kind of content online, using habits they have already built (e.g. engaging with quizzes)
be actually, genuinely fun
As a result, mused aims to inspire all English-speaking kids around the world to discover fresh content about all things art, design, music, fashion, games and shows - in a way that's relevant to their interests and intentions, while introducing them to the world of the V&A – as a side effect of having fun.
A huge thanks to the brilliant Kati Price for leading the project, as well as the fantastic project team James Nation, Rebekah Ford, Kim Plowright, Megan Graye, Erica McKoy and Tom Shreeve. Very proud of this team effort.
Now go on, give mused a spin in and let us know what you think.