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Kura Hulanda

A website that lets a museum of hard history speak in its own voice, to locals, tourists, researchers and other museums.

Role
UX designer
Scope
Research sessions, sitemap, content framework, design system
Year
2025
Team
David van Delden, Rieven Martis and a junior designer I guided

A museum of some of the hardest history in the Caribbean had a website that no longer said what it stood for. We gave it one voice, for four very different visitors.

The problem

An out-of-date site, no clear identity online, and visitors missed on the walk from the cruise port.

What I did

Ran the research sessions, defined four audiences, the sitemap, the content framework and the design system.

The result

A live storytelling site the museum runs itself, with one colour and one voice per exhibit.

4audiences, each with its own door
4exhibits, each with its own colour
1system the museum keeps current itself
LedResearch sessionsSitemapContent frameworkContributedDesign systemVisual direction
01The situation

A strong mission, a site that hid it

The museum had renewed its mission. Online, none of it showed. Scroll through what we heard in the sessions.

Illustration: three people in conversation in a museum gallery with historical maps, one holding a tablet with a sitemap.
Heard in the sessionsThe mission was renewed. The website still told the old story.
Welcome to our museum of ...A place of memory, healing and dialogue
Heard in the sessionsNo clear identity online. Every page looked different.
Four pages, four looks
Heard in the sessionsPrices and hours were three clicks deep.
Home › Visit › Info › Tickets
Heard in the sessionsCruise visitors have a few hours, and walk right past.
Terminal to museum: under 10 minutes on foot
02Structure

Four audiences, four doors

The sessions named four groups the site has to serve. Each one gets its own way in from the first screen.

Ticket prices as coloured cards.
Tourists

Plan a visit

Prices, hours and the short walk from the port, on one screen.

Get involved with Kura Hulanda.
Locals

Come back, take part

Resident prices, volunteering and friends of the museum.

West African Kingdoms exhibit.
Researchers

Go deeper

The collection, the exhibits and the story behind them.

Collaboration opportunities for artists, historians and educators.
Other museums

Work together

Exhibitions, programmes and research, as dialogue.

03Decisions

Calls that shaped the site

A carved wooden mask.West Africa
A carved statue holding a torch.Atlantic world
A bronze warrior figure.Kingdoms
Decision 1 of 3

One colour per exhibit, the objects in front.

A dark ground and one deep colour per exhibit, so the real objects carry each page and visitors always know which story they are in. Move over the objects to see their ridges.

What it cost: every new exhibit needs its colour and imagery decided before it goes online.

The museum page opens on the sculpture in the courtyard and the history of the museum.
Decision 2 of 3

The first screen is the place, not the price.

Pages open on the building, the people and the history. Tickets are never more than one click away, but they do not lead.

What it cost: one more scroll before the prices for a visitor in a hurry.

The Atlantic World exhibit: a statue on magenta, shackles on teal.
Decision 3 of 3

Real photographs first. AI only where history left no picture.

The museum photographed its own collection. Images were generated only for moments no camera recorded, and each one was checked.

What it cost: a historical check before any generated image went live.

04Design

From a slogan to a museum voice

Early directions led with a protest line in hand-cut type. Strong, but every page shouted. The final design keeps that type for the name and lets the objects speak.

Early direction: Remember injustice, empower change, in hand-cut type over a light ground with photographs.
Direction one
Early direction: the same line on a dark ground over a curved gallery of photographs.
Direction two
Final design: Discover the legacy of a continent and beyond, with collection objects on coloured panels.
The final direction
05The site

Desktop and phone

Many visitors look the museum up on a phone, often on the walk from the cruise terminal.

kurahulandamuseum.com
Phone: the visit section with counters, from the live site.
The home page: children in front of a ship model, under Learn. Empower. Change. On the phone: the visit section, on the walk from the port.
Design: ticket prices as coloured cards for adults, residents, children and groups.
Every price on one screen, resident rate included
Design: the address on a map of Curacao, less than a ten minute walk from the cruise port.
Ten minutes from the cruise port
Design: our impact, coloured cards for 200,000 artifacts, 30 collaborations, 5,000 students, 15 buildings and 100,000 visitors.
The museum in numbers
kurahulandamuseum.com/exhibits
Design: the Transatlantic exhibit page on its own deep colour, the objects in front.
Phone: the Exhibits section, on a map of Curacao, from the live site.
An exhibit on its own colour, at any size

Desktop screens are vectors rendered from the final design file. Phone screens are from the live site.

06Outcome

Live, and run by the museum

New exhibits drop into the same structure and colour system without us.

Team

David van Delden, creative director. Rieven Martis, developer. A junior designer, whom I guided. Ngrane.

What I would measure next

How many visits reach a ticket price from the first screen, and time spent per exhibit.

Visit it

kurahulandamuseum.com

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