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Smithsonian Institution

From Museum Websites to Institution-Wide Digital Strategy

With nineteen museums, the National Zoo, twenty-one libraries, fifteen archives, and research centers spanning the globe, the Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum and research complex, and one of the most trusted cultural institutions in the world.

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The challenge

The world's largest museum and research complex needed a digital partner for the long haul.

With nineteen museums, the National Zoo, twenty-one libraries, fifteen archives, and research centers spanning the globe, the Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum and research complex, and one of the most trusted cultural institutions in the world. Since 2015, Forum One has worked with eleven Smithsonian museums, research centers, and cross-institutional units on everything from brand strategy and content architecture to technology, analytics, and emerging digital experiences. What began as a single museum website engagement has grown into an enduring digital partnership built on a decade of trust, deep institutional knowledge, and a shared commitment to finding the right solution in support of Smithsonian’s mission.

The Smithsonian's digital challenges were about reaching new audiences, connecting collections and content across dozens of units, and building digital experiences worthy of the world's great cultural institution. This, all while navigating the complexity of an organization where decisions cross departmental, technological, and governance boundaries.

Each engagement brought its own dimension of that challenge. Before the National Museum of African American History and Culture had a physical building, it needed a digital presence that could carry the weight of its mission. The Office of Digital Transformation needed to reach younger Millennials and Gen Z audiences who were not previously engaging with the Smithsonian. And the Institution as a whole needed a way to unite its vast collections, exhibitions, events, and digital content into a single, personalized experience for every visitor.

The impact

  • 11Museums, research centers, and cross-institutional units served
  • 3M+People reached by Kaleidoscope in first six months across all 50 states
  • 10+Years of enduring digital partnership with the Smithsonian Institution

Project at a glance

Timeline
10+ year partnership
Impact Areas
Arts & Culture
Capabilities
Strategy, Experience Design, Technology

Deliverables

  • Digital strategy & content architecture
  • Design, UX & front-end development
  • Extensible design system across museum properties
  • Audience research & strategic roadmapping
  • Omnichannel campaign design & production
  • Personalized discovery platform

Proud to partner with

  • National Museum of African American History and Culture
  • National Museum of American History
  • National Museum of Natural History
  • National Air and Space Museum
  • National Museum of the American Indian
  • National Museum of the American Latino
  • Smithsonian American Women's History Museum
  • Office of Digital and Innovation Smithsonian
  • Anacostia Community Museum

Our Approach

Building a digital home before the doors opened.

Forum One's first Smithsonian engagement began before the National Museum of African American History and Culture had opened its doors on the National Mall. We led design, user experience, and front-end development for the Webby Award-winning nmaahc.si.edu, and then extended that design system into the museum's most consequential digital work: the Talking About Race initiative, the Freedmen's Bureau Search Portal, and the brand and site for the first-ever Smithsonian African American Film Festival. Across each of these projects, the goal was the same: digital experiences that matched the depth and significance of the museum's mission.

Child looking at a laptop
Person looking at a laptop
Person looking at computer screen

Starting with strategy, not execution.

As the relationship expanded to other Smithsonian units, Forum One consistently brought the same approach: listen before building. When the National Museum of American History came to Forum One for a website upgrade, we began with a strategic roadmap, surveying staff, interviewing audiences and stakeholders, and auditing content and technology before making a single design decision. Similar partnerships followed at the National Museum of Natural History, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of the American Latino, and the American Women's History Museum, whose first online exhibition, Becoming Visible, earned coverage in The New York Times at launch.

Child looking at a laptop
Collage of images

Helping the Smithsonian find the right center of gravity.

In 2023, the Smithsonian's Office of Digital and Innovation asked Forum One to design the Institution's first-ever pan-institutional initiative for an audience it had struggled to reach: younger Millennials and older Gen Z. The initial concept centered on a website with virtual and in-person experiences. Rather than proceed directly to execution, Forum One recommended starting with the audience: surveying 500+ people ages 18 to 30 about what resilience meant to them and where they actually spent their attention online. That research revealed a fundamentally different solution.

The audience the Smithsonian was trying to reach wasn't going to come to a website on their own – the Smithsonian needed to meet them where they already were. So Forum One designed and built Kaleidoscope: Patterns of Resilience, an omnichannel experience spanning social content, curated playlists, and streaming placements on Hulu and Disney+, physical activations, alongside a bilingual digital hub that drew objects and stories from 17 Smithsonian units. It was the Institution's first project of its kind.

Phone screen, tote bag and button
Overhead images of a website tiled in a pattern
Collage of images and the word "Kaleidoscope"

Creating the Smithsonian's first personalized and localized discovery platform

In 2025, the Office of Digital and Innovation engaged Forum One to plan, design, and build MySmithsonian, a discovery platform that unites the Institution's collections, exhibitions, events, and digital content.

The result is a personalized, localized "For You" feed built from the Institution's collections and events systems, supported by a cross-unit topic taxonomy and content governance model that makes content findable from across the Institution. MySmithsonian launched in spring 2026 as a front door to the entire Smithsonian for America's 250th anniversary.

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Woman looking at a computer on a desk

The solution

Pan-institutional digital work requires knowing where data lives, which systems sit on which platforms, and who must agree before decisions are made and products are launched.

Forum One has spent a decade bringing its expertise to the Smithsonian Institution with the following impact:

  • Eleven museums, research centers, and cross-institutional units served since 2015
  • Kaleidoscope: Patterns of Resilience reached more than three million people across all 50 states in its first six months, drawing on content and objects from 17 Smithsonian units – the Institution's first pan-institutional digital initiative of its kind
  • MySmithsonian launched in spring 2026 as a unified digital front door for America's 250th anniversary celebration
  • Webby Award-winning museum website for NMAAHC; New York Times coverage of the Becoming Visible digital exhibition launch
  • Forum One holds a position on the Smithsonian's Web and Mobile Design and Development IDIQ, reflecting the Institution's confidence in Forum One as a long-term digital partner

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