Responses by Zhenya Rynzhuk, designer; Synchronized Studio, development; and The Covid Art Museum.

Background: The purpose of this website is to make The Covid Art Museum project more accessible to the public. In this way, we escape the limitations found on Instagram, the place where the museum was born. The best thing about the website is that we can develop our own tone and style to communicate more authentically about ourselves and the people behind the work.

Design core: The key component of the website is its interactive grid that enables visitors to learn more about the project while reminding them of the importance of social distancing. The website also features light and dark modes, as well as a lot of other delightful moments and interactions that keep visitors’ engagement at a high level. What’s more, the website starts with a dynamic, bold loader and also features a unique 404 page.

Challenges: Coming up with the key conceptual idea for the project around which the entire web experience would be based. We did a lot of reference research and explorations to come up with a grid that works as a skeleton for the site starting from the loader throughout the other inner pages. Once this was put in place, we started adding various interactive moments. The key mechanic of the site is that there are a lot of empty cells on the grid that can be clicked, and a visitor will either be provided with a piece of new content or will get a “keep social distance” reminder.

Navigation structure: The site’s navigation is simple and easy to use. It features the light/dark mode switch as well as enabling quick access to the main feed and the About section. There’s also a prominent call to action that invites website visitors to contribute to the project and submit their creative work.

Technology: The website is built on Vue.js and Nuxt.js. We used GSAP to create the animations. The main technical complexity that required our maximum attention was creating a smooth scrolling experience for a pretty long grid page without compromising the usability and FPS. We achieved this goal successfully.