Charlie Chaplin Archive

Keepthinking has been collaborating with Cineteca di Bologna since 2007, when we designed the previous iteration of the CCA website. This iteration provides enhanced ways in which to explore the collection. The website honed the archival material to be more accessible to everyone, including a search engine designed and developed to facilitate the discovery of hidden treasures (fully available in English and Italian).

Charlie Chaplin Archive approached Keepthinking to enhance the audience focus, accessibility, user journeys and aesthetic value of the website while maintaining the complexity and specificity of the previous iteration.

We rationalised the brief into four key points. Focusing on accessibility, we created connections between different pieces of content on the website, essentially making the archive more approachable and usable for different audience types.

Audience Focus is how we organise and give options to the user for browsing and searching the archives. As a result, the new website provides a richer user experience, bringing the wealth of resources to its forefront. Resources are clearly signposted for researchers, casual and academic alike.

The search form includes several different filters and fields through which a search can be refined. Once a search has been performed, the user can choose between column view or a row view, focusing on images or details. More casual, browsing activities are also catered for with content highlights.

The image of an object can be zoomed in and examined in more detail, and high resolution imagery can be requested from the team.

Users can request a login for research/publication purposes, enabling them to access private content, high-res images and in-depth content hidden from the public web-collection. Resources can also be shared on social media.

Stories function as a learning resource, where short articles shed light on aspects of Chaplin’s life and on objects from the archive. Stories can be filtered by type.

The integration of images and records within a single story breaks up the content for the reader, and allows for immediate quoting and referral.

The user is encouraged to continue browsing by presenting related content, helping them to keep progressing throughout the collection.