A small museum website that answers visitors' practical questions first
Most people visiting a museum website have already decided to go, or nearly. They want opening hours, ticket prices, how to get there, whether it's accessible and what's on. A museum website that puts that practical information first, and links cleanly to ticketing, does more for visitor numbers than any amount of mission statement. Here's how to build one with Anticode.
The plan-your-visit page does the heavy lifting
For a small or independent museum, the visit page is the most important page on the site, and it should be reachable in one tap from every other page. Write it as a checklist a visitor can scan on their phone on the way:
| Question | What to include |
|---|---|
| When are you open? | Days and hours, last entry, seasonal changes and closures. Update it the moment anything changes. |
| What does it cost? | Admission, concessions, free days, members, and whether tickets must be booked ahead. |
| How do I get there? | Address, map link, public transport, parking, coach drop-off. |
| How long should I allow? | A typical visit length, and what to prioritise if time is short. |
| Food, toilets, shop | Café hours, baby changing, lockers, picnic areas. |
| Rules | Photography, bags, pushchairs, dogs. |
Accessibility, in detail
Disabled visitors and their companions plan more carefully than most, and vague reassurance ("we are fully accessible") is less useful than facts. Describe step-free routes, lifts and their dimensions, accessible toilets, seating in galleries, wheelchairs to borrow, lighting and noise levels, quiet times, large-print or audio guides, assistance dog policy and companion ticket arrangements. Name a contact for questions. The site itself should be easy to use with assistive technology too: Anticode's design gate checks for visible keyboard focus, reduced-motion support, alt text and a phone viewport before publishing. The website accessibility guide covers more.
What's on, from the CMS
Exhibitions, family activities, talks and late openings change through the year, and a page that lists last summer's events makes the whole site feel neglected. Keep them in a whats-on CMS collection with fields for title, type, dates, times, age suitability, price note and a ticket link. Each entry gets its own page and the collection's overview page lists them. Volunteers or staff can update entries in the dashboard without touching the design.
A smaller collection-highlights collection lets you feature objects with an image, a caption and a few paragraphs of story. These pages are worth writing well: they're what people searching for a local history topic or a specific object will find.
Tickets, groups and donations
- Timed tickets
- Anticode doesn't sell tickets or manage capacity. If you use a ticketing system, link to it from the visit page and every event; if admission is simple, a checkout link from your payment provider can sell an entry or an event place, though it won't cap numbers.
- School and group visits
- Teachers want a page covering what sessions you offer, curriculum links, ages, group sizes, lunch space, risk assessment information and costs. The contact form (name, email, message) handles enquiries; prompt for school name, year group, number of pupils and preferred dates. A connector can add each enquiry to a Google Sheet your learning team works from.
- Donations
- A "Support us" page explaining what donations pay for, with buttons linked to Stripe Payment Links or PayPal for one-off gifts. Gift Aid and similar schemes have their own rules; follow your own guidance on wording and records.
- Membership or friends scheme
- Describe benefits and point the join button at your payment link. An account has one payment link, so for several tiers use a product list at your provider. Anticode doesn't manage member records or renewals.
Building it with Anticode
Describe the museum, its collection and who your audiences are (families, schools, researchers, tourists). The Architect asks up to three questions where the answer changes the build and shows a plan. Separate pages for Visit, What's on, Learning, Support us and About keep navigation familiar. Editorial (Geist) suits a museum with lots of writing; Playful (Fredoka) suits a children's or science museum (the Big Bang Discovery Centre template is a kids' science centre in that spirit); Swiss (Inter Tight) suits design and architecture collections. See also online donations for small charities.
What a museum will need alongside Anticode
- Ticketing with time slots, capacity limits and scanning at the door.
- Collections management or an online catalogue database.
- Membership records, renewals and Gift Aid declarations.
- Translated pages for international visitors: Anticode sites are English only.
Questions people ask
Can a museum sell timed tickets on an Anticode site?
No. Anticode has no ticketing or capacity limits. Link to your ticketing system, or use a payment link for simple admission without timed slots.
Can teachers book school visits online?
They can send an enquiry through the contact form, which reaches you by email and can be copied to a Google Sheet. You confirm dates by reply.
Can we take donations?
Yes, with buttons pointing to a checkout link from Stripe Payment Links or PayPal. Anticode doesn't handle Gift Aid or donor records.