UndocArchive
Designing UndocArchive's first digital collection experience
SUMMARY
UndocArchive had never made its collection accessible online. As the lead UX designer, I helped envision and build the collective's first digital platform for exploring and discovering its collection. Our approach was rooted in values-driven, participatory design and emphasized usability, access, and scalability.
TIMELINE
2023
PLATFORM
Web - Desktop
CLIENT
The New School
TOOLS
Figma
Photoshop
MY ROLE AND TEAM
Who's UndocArchive?
UndocArchive is a collective at The New School supporting art made by immigrants. Through digital archives, research, and community collaboration, we preserve and amplify immigrant voices in the arts.
My designs help make this work accessible, supporting researchers, students, and the public in discovering stories, resources, and creative resistance.
DESIGN GOAL
Making the collection accessible, discoverable, and ready for the public
Open Access
Make the collection publicly available through a scalable and user-friendly platform for both casual visitors and researchers.
Flexible Discovery
Design intuitive pathways for exploring artworks, by artist, medium, time period, or theme, to support varied user goals.
Build for Longevity
Preserve curatorial voice while introducing UX practices that enable long-term content growth and accessibility.
KEY INSIGHTS
Competitive Analysis
We studied leading museum and archive discovery platforms including The Met, MoMA, Smithsonian, NYPL, and the Archives of American Art:
We compared:
Browsing and search mechanisms (tree views, filters, keyword tags)
How metadata and context were displayed
Visual hierarchy and accessibility
Support for exploratory vs. targeted use cases
This research shaped our decision to build a visual-first interface with robust filters, contextual metadata, and optional deep dives into archival relationships (e.g., artist biographies, related works, and exhibit history).
UXR
Values-Driven & Participatory Discovery
Our work was anchored in a principle of generative access, supporting multiple paths into the collection and rewarding curiosity. We emphasized that access should serve both human and machine-assisted users, and reflect the voices of internal staff as well as external audiences.
We conducted:
One-on-one narrative interviews with curators, educators, and staff to understand priorities, workflows
Participatory site mapping workshops to explore how users might navigate and engage with the collection
User persona refinement to define goals and behaviors of casual browsers, researchers, and educators
This approach helped ground our site architecture in the mental models and needs of real users, many of whom were engaging in UX conversations for the first time.
UXR
Laying the Groundwork with IA and Participatory Design
Instead of jumping into UI, we prioritized information architecture, developing a sitemap and wireframes to clarify data needs and align with IT and archive partners. Through one-on-one interviews and a collaborative card-sorting exercise with RAC staff, we mapped expectations and navigation patterns, introducing participatory UX methods that will carry into future usability testing.
DESIGN EXPLORATIONS
Homepage – A Visual Gateway to the Archive
The homepage serves as a welcoming and visually immersive entry point. Featuring large, high-resolution images of artworks, it invites users to begin exploring immediately. Multiple points of entry, such as featured themes, recently added works, and artist highlights, support both casual browsing and purposeful discovery.
DESIGN EXPLORATIONS
Collection Detail Page – Thematic Curations that Invite Deeper Discovery
The Collection Detail Page highlights a curated grouping of works. Large images and clear titles draw users in, while a short introduction provides historical or curatorial context. Users can scroll through artworks within the collection, access individual detail pages, and explore related collections, offering a narrative-driven browsing experience that bridges individual pieces with broader cultural or thematic significance.
DESIGN EXPLORATIONS
Art Detail Page – Deep Dive into Each Work’s Story and Context
Each artwork has a dedicated page that balances visual impact with curatorial depth. A large image anchors the page, supported by descriptive text, artist information, and relevant tags. This page was designed to scale, allowing for additional media, contextual essays, or archival documents in the future, while maintaining clarity and focus.
OBSTACLES
Overcoming time & tech constraints
Limited Time and Resources
As the project was new territory for the museum, it didn’t start with a dedicated team or full timeline. Content was scattered, image assets were inconsistent, and metadata varied in quality.
Designing with Non-Design Stakeholders
Many collaborators, especially researchers and curators, weren’t familiar with UX or digital product workflows. There were gaps in language, expectations, and process.
Prioritized Features
I prioritized core user flows first (like browsing and viewing artwork), then designed the system to scale as more content came in. I created flexible templates that could accommodate incomplete data, allowing us to scale over time.
Shared Language
I broke down design decisions into relatable terms and framed feedback sessions around the goals they cared about: access, accuracy, and storytelling. This helped shift conversations from subjective preferences to user impact.
TAKEAWAYS
Show, Don’t Tell
Participatory design builds buy-in
Involving staff early through structured exercises fostered engagement and set the stage for continued collaboration.
Wireframes are a communication bridge
Even low-fidelity visuals were critical for aligning developers, archivists, and designers.
User expectations shape navigation
Insights from narrative interviews directly informed the sitemap, especially around search behavior and content discoverability.
REFLECTION
Listening Before Designing
This project taught me how powerful early collaboration can be, not just for shaping the product, but for building trust. I learned to translate UX concepts into language others could connect with and saw how simple tools like wireframes or card sorting could spark shared ownership. It also stretched me as a facilitator, not just a designer, and reminded me that good design often starts with good conversation.
I'm especially grateful to the researchers and staff who took the time to share their insights and engage so openly in the process. their curiosity and care shaped every part of this work.
