Santa Croce Opera
The Opera di Santa Croce needed to modernize its digital experience with a website that would do more than provide information about the Santa Croce monumental complex: it had to inspire, educate and inform visitors, curious minds and scholars alike. Here's a look at the work done by the Cantiere Creativo team.
A modern website for a centuries-old institution
The Santa Croce Opera website is designed to convey the extraordinary richness of the Santa Croce monumental complex, and not just its architecture: it is a place unlike any other in the world, bringing together art, spirituality and memory.
The project's goal was to make it easy for visitors to immerse themselves in that richness, through a website that is easy to navigate and clearly structured.
A proven method
For the Santa Croce Opera project, we chose the Agency Solution. This decision paid off, thanks to its faster time to launch and an established approach built on more than ten years of experience with headless CMS-based systems.
Natural navigation
The need to speak to multiple types of users and to cover the many facets of the museum complex led us to clearly divide the website into a few main macro-areas. Even so, the sections connect to one another through a dense network of cross-references and internal links, helping users enjoy a natural and rewarding browsing experience.
Given the nature of museum websites, we added a secondary utility menu with direct links to tickets and the shop, along with internal search.
Layout design
We started the design work with low-fidelity wireframes that helped us visualize the most important blocks and templates and create clear, linear on-page navigation.
This phase lets us move into user interface design with a very clear idea of what's needed and how to build it properly.
A consistent visual identity
The color palette draws on the museum complex itself, with its deep blues and an almost mustard yellow used for accents.
For typography, we went with a classic choice that reflects the Opera's academic and research side, pairing a graceful font for body text with a sans-serif for headings.
Fast, efficient development
Thanks to the work done during the design and creative phases, front-end development was fast and efficient.
The website was built on the same tech stack successfully used for major museums and institutions such as the Ministry of Innovation and Digital Transformation, delivering flawless, scalable performance even during unexpected traffic spikes.
Accessibility
As a museum complex, it was essential for the Opera di Santa Croce to offer its users a digital platform that is accessible to everyone.
That's why we made sure the contrast between text and colors meets AAA accessibility level, and that every page can be navigated with screen readers or the keyboard.
The text and images on this page are for demonstration purposes only and differ from the live version.
