Users struggle to find art in the collection

Nasjonalmuseet is Norway's largest institution for art, architecture, and design. Their online collection — Samlingen — contains thousands of artworks. But navigating it is harder than it should be.

After interviewing users, one finding stood out: 64% of the people interviewed faced difficulties when navigating through the website. The main pain points were poor artwork categorization, hidden filter functionality, and no clear indication of how to refine a search.

Three core usability problems

A timeline and always-visible filters

Card sorting exercises revealed that extensive category lists were overwhelming rather than helpful. The redesign simplifies the experience through two main additions:

• Timeline view — a chronological way to browse artworks that gives users an intuitive mental model, especially for those who already know an era they're interested in.
• Always-visible static filters — filters are now displayed directly in the search bar rather than hidden behind a click, so users immediately understand they can refine results.
• Location information — each artwork now displays where in the museum it is physically showcased, bridging the digital and physical experience.

What I learned

Nasjonalmuseet already has a strong visual identity created by Metric Design. The redesign deliberately preserved this style guide — the goal was to improve usability, not rebrand.

The card sorting exercise was a key research method here. It showed that when users are given too many categories at once, they stop categorizing altogether. Reducing cognitive load by consolidating into a timeline was a direct response to that insight.

This was a school project from Fagskolen Kristiania and was not commissioned by or affiliated with Nasjonalmuseet.