The Met App

 

Whether you're new to the Met or a passionate Member, living locally or wanting to stay connected from afar, start here. The Met App is a free mobile application that provides easily accessed information on current exhibitions, events, news, and highlighted objects on view. 

The app is designed to be a simple, elegant, easy-to-use starting point to engage with the Museum and its art, exhibitions and events. In-app cues, which were designed to require minimal explanation and avoid unnecessary walkthrough screens, educate users through subtle animation. Motion and animation in the app heighten users’ delight and understanding, and help bring life and personality to the app. A global navigation icon orientates users within the app, offering a one-tap overview of its seven sections to ensure a user is never lost. To give the app its approachable, human voice, messaging is inserted throughout the user’s journey to offer context and information.

The objective of the Met app is to be the easiest way to see what's happening at the Met every day, wherever you are. This vision is the basis for the product design principles: useful, simple and delightful. These principles inform every aspect of design, from the user-centered approach and feature set, to the compelling interface, and to the impactful copywriting.

The Met app was promoted on the App Store and downloaded 100,000 times in the first month after launch. It has received praise from Forbes, Business Insider, and The New York Times. From The New York Times:

Few [museum apps] are themselves works of art that engage and entertain whether you're at the museum or not — which makes the new app from the Metropolitan Museum of Art so impressive. [It] is beautifully designed, as you'd imagine, but it's also a rich, accessible experience on its own, primarily because of original content and a pleasingly cheeky tone. – Molly Wood, NYT

Features

  • Map of the Museum and ability to pin the location of events, exhibitions, and artworks

  • Recommendations on what to see, from artworks to architecture

  • Full listings of our exhibitions, events, and how to visit the Museum

  • A special section for Met Members with upcoming events and opportunities

  • Ability to save your favorite art, events, and exhibitions, and add them to your calendar

  • Optimized for use with iOS Accessibility features—including VoiceOver, Zoom, and Larger Text

PROJECT
Designed, developed, and produced for The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2014 and 2015.

FORMAT
Available on iPhone, iPad, and Android.

PRODUCTION CREDITS
General manager: Paco Link
Project director: Loic Tallon
Producer: Liz Filardi
Tehnical leads: Ryan Donahue and Spencer Kiser
Developers: Subathra Thanabalan, Andrew Carpenter and Johann Diedrick
Writer: Nina Diamond
Design and development: Instrument

 

Paco Link