Above: The homepage provides many ways to enter and interact with the site, from browsing and collecting artworks from the collection, to taking fun quizzes, to browsing other kids’ uploaded artwork. To help kids make connections between the ways that Whitney artists make art and how kids today create their own art, works by Whitney artists are paired with artwork by kids on the landing page. Pages about featured Whitney artists often emphasize the processes and life experiences of each artist.

After designing the Whitney Museum’s website in 2010, in 2011 we introduced a major new area for kids: Whitney For Kids. The new site turns the main Whitney website’s design grammar on its head, keeping some of the same structure and attitude but giving it a whole new look. Kids can explore all the same artists and artworks as adults can, but in their own design language, and dozens of artist and artwork pages have all new, richly engaging kid-specific content.

Kids can also do a lot more than adults. They can make their own pages on the Whitney’s website, using a kid-friendly version of the same content management system used by Whitney staff. They can take quizzes and polls, tag artworks, collect art, upload their own art, and browse the art of both Whitney artists and other kids. And they can change the background pattern of the whole website, for all to see, using a fun and educational tool.

The design has been described as “hallucinatory” and kids really seem to connect with it, using the site in many different ways. Some slowly explore all the art; others just want to make their own pages and add tags. Those approaches map to two major approaches of the site: Emphasize parallels and connections between kids and artists; and create a discursive space, like a crowd of kids in a museum who can all hear and see each other talking about and reacting to what’s around them.

Many museum kids sites feature a limited number of artists or (even worse) a limited number of activities or games, creating a small “walled garden.” Our approach sought to open the entirety of the Whitney to kids, in ways that are even more ambitious than what’s available to adults. To accomplish this, we created modular features that can be re-used across many artists and artworks, rather than specific games. This allowed museum educators to create their own rich pages for each artist. Pedagogically, on our side we focused on features that were about museum-going, curation, and art-making itself – and even features that are about a museum website, such as making your own pages. In this way we created an entire virtual museum just for kids, as many-faceted as the Whitney itself. This approach also allowed us to leverage all the work that we and the Whitney have invested in the main site, in a new way; and even to try out some features that may eventually make it back to the adult site. The site is a work in progress, and more content will be added over time by museum curators, educators, and kids themselves.

Above: The Whitney’s complete collection presented in a fun, kid-friendly environment. Kids are also prompted to access and engage and with artworks by answering fun questions, tagging artworks and finding tags that interest them, adding artworks to their own online collections and curating multiple collections, and more.

Above: Featured artists’ pages are created by Whitney staff using our content management system from colorful and easy to use text, image, video, and prompt modules. Kids engage by watching videos, exploring the materials used by artists, spending time with the artwork images themselves and reading about them, and in many other ways.

Above: Kids are prompted throughout the site to take quizzes, answer questions, vote on and tag artworks. We were skeptical about the quizzes feature but found that some kids were surprisingly into it.

Above: Fun voting prompts. When you vote or take a quiz, a badge appears on your page.

Above: One kid’s page that he made.

Above: To work on their pages, kids use a kid-friendly version of the same content management system used by Whitney staff to create the rest of the website (our content management system, Economy).

Above: The pattern maker. Anyone can change the background of whole website, which affects the site for everyone. Patterns you’ve made also appear on your page so you can go back to them if you want.

Above: The pattern maker also includes examples of artists from the Whitney’s collection who use pattern and algorithm – a nice example of how this site seeks to make connections between exploration and practice, and between active and passive learning.

Above: Like the rest of the Whitney’s site, the kids area turns black at night.