MU.SE. — Museo dei Recuperanti is a non-profit museum based near Lake Garda, Italy, dedicated to preserving artifacts and stories from World War I. When they approached me, they had no digital presence at all. The goal was to build their first website from scratch, within a limited budget, and designed to be fully manageable by the museum's team without ongoing technical support.
The Challenge
The main constraint was sustainability. As a non-profit with no dedicated IT staff, the museum needed a site they could update and maintain independently — without paying for a developer every time a new event or exhibit needed to be added. Budget was tight, so every decision had to be deliberate.
My Approach
I chose WordPress as the foundation specifically for this reason: it's robust, widely documented, and gives non-technical users full control over their content. The museum wouldn't be locked into a proprietary platform or dependent on me for basic updates.
The design process started with two distinct visual directions presented to the client. Their feedback directly shaped the final aesthetic — color palette, typography, and layout were all chosen collaboratively, with the museum's identity and audience in mind. Content was developed together as well: I worked with the team to select and organize their archival photographs and write the copy, translating their historical expertise into something accessible and engaging for a general audience.
With roughly half the project time dedicated to UX and information architecture, the focus was on making complex historical content easy to navigate — guiding visitors through exhibits logically whether they were exploring online or planning a physical visit.
The Result
The museum launched with a complete, responsive website optimized for both desktop and mobile. The client was satisfied with the outcome and, importantly, gained full ownership of a platform they could manage independently — which was the core requirement from day one.
What I'd do differently
I didn't set up analytics at launch, as the client wasn't interested in ongoing monitoring. In hindsight, even a basic GA4 setup would have provided useful data for the museum's future decisions. It's something I now include by default in every project handoff.
