The Mauritshuis in The Hague has a large amount of Masterpieces in its collection. But alas, they are more famous than the museum itself. We want to enthuse more people about visiting the museum; therefore we show which masterpieces can be seen in the Mauritshuis. By exposing the works in this manner before a large international audience – young and old – they discover the unexpected stories behind the paintings and get acquainted with the museum at the same time. This is the first part in a series of online stories about Masterpieces on display at the museum: ‘The Goldfinch’ by Carel Fabritius, the most looked at bird in the history of art. The world behind this apparent small painting is much larger than you would suspect. The website takes you on a bird’s eye view journey through the life of The Goldfinch, which unfolds before your eyes.

The aim was to bring the stories about the paintings in the collection to life and to make them accessible to virtual visitors throughout the world. In the end it is all about stories worth sharing. Accordingly this is in line with the strategy we developed for the Mauritshuis: to paint a picture of the Golden Age, and as such bring the story behind known and lesser known paintings to a great and international audience and get them acquainted with the museum at the same time. The website consists of 9 different layers and lets the viewer experience the complete story of ‘The Goldfinch’. Based on the brand guidelines we explored multiple angles in the design process. We had to consider very carefully where to place navigational objects to ensure they would not interfere with the experience of the website. The next challenge was to build the architecture of chapters, blocks and hotspots that would react to the scroll and have their own animations, but still seamlessly scroll into the next section. We wanted to give the viewer the feeling that they would really take a plunge into the painting. So we left as much room possible for exploring, looking and intuitively discover all the stories behind the painting. We’ve reduced unnecessary interface and excess scrolling to eliminate any distraction. Within 4 months the project came to life. Starting in November 2016 with extensive research for content and mapping a rudimentary UX. This was quickly followed by design, front and backend development for all platforms and extensive testing until the 9th February – the official launch date.