Overview

The APEX Museum is the oldest African-American history museum in Atlanta and draws 65,000 visitors from 50 states and 50 countries annually.

The mission of the APEX Museum is to interpret and present history from an African American perspective to help all Americans and international visitors better understand and appreciate the contributions of African Americans to America and the world. Despite the rich history, the museum has yet to fully live up to its potential and could use improvements to its online presence, community engagement, navigation systems, and presentation quality in order to revitalize and fulfill its mission.

The founder of the museum, Mr. Dan Moore Sr. passed away recently. His son, Mr. Dan Moore Jr. hired me to pushed his vision to revitalized the museum to attract and retains more visitors.

Quick Details

Mr. Moore wanted me to implement intentional design principles to the APEX museum in order to facilitate greater engagement within Atlanta and globally, while enhancing its role as a pivotal institution in showcasing African-American history. My work includes:

• Researched what the visitors and stakeholders wants. From my data, created their personas and user journeys.
• Redesigned and user tested the website using Figma.
• Created the website from scratch using Webflow based on the Figma design.
• Integrated clear CMS within the website so that management can easily add content to the site when needed.
• Implemented Printful API into Webflow and set up the payment system with PayPal.
• Set up a new online shopping experience for the website and adjusted the physical gift shop.
• Enhanced material presentation such as the redesigned timeline with high-quality visuals and typography, optimized for AR integration.
• Came up with VR & hologram concept that is approved by the Boards.
• Reworked the interior design of the museum resulted in better wayfinding, visual, and audio.
• User tested my works.
• Collaborated with different department such as marketing, theater, TV network, and animation to keep the museum and its branding consistent throughout.
• Worked with the APEX Museum partners such as the Alma Film Festival and Blue Bistro Studio.

The Biggest Roadblock

One challenge I often face in implementing projects at APEX, a nonprofit museum, is cost. While increased visitors and revenue help, grants and donations come in slowly. To address this, I researched vendors and markets to find high-quality, cost-effective solutions and presented them to leadership. Additionally, I optimized museum space and collaborated with curators to deliver high-quality presentations in a smaller footprint.

Photo and Images

Here are the examples of my works

More than just revenue

The improved aspects of the museum above not just resulted in $60,000,000 donation and ticket sale. But, it also resulted in the museum receiving the Presidential Award from the United States President, Joe Biden. The APEX Museum is not just a historical institution. But, it also acts as a pivotal institution in bringing communities together and pushes social advancement, not just local, but globally.