DIVA Museum

DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds, is a museum in the heart of Antwerp, Belgium, that explores the different aspects of silversmithing, jewellery and diamonds.

Keepthinking designed and developed their digital presence with an emphasis on the collection and the stories around it, with the Qi CMS being used for both collection management and web content management.

Two Antwerp institutions, The Diamond Museum and the Zilvermuseum merged to form the Diamond and Silver museums, DIVA. This resulted in an interim period where the buildings were closed for renovations.

The DIVA’s new digital home is a comprehensive website that works in tandem with the physical museum to provide an unforgettable experience of the enthralling world of diamonds.

DIVA now has the platform to tell all the fascinating stories of silversmithing in Antwerp and shine a light on the craftsmanship, trade and consumption of luxury products in their diamond centre of the world, via stories, collection displays and research articles.

We laid out a strong foundation for our designs by putting together a navigation and content strategy. We then worked iteratively in close collaboration with the team in Antwerp, to explore ways of telling the story of the DIVA character and how to represent it in a digital space.

Provincien Antwerpen commissioned Keepthinking to design a new website during this period, to raise awareness of DIVA as a new space while construction was in progress, as well as to keep people updated regarding the museum and their activities post-launch. This called for a fully flexible site, able to cater for different pre- and post-launch requirements.

A dedicated section of the website to let users know what’s on at the Diva Museum in Antwerp, with filtering between types of events and a calendar functionality. Users can book general tickets for admission or purchase tickets in advance for specific events.

At the core of the museum is its significant collection of objects spanning hundreds of centuries and cultures.

Identifying key entry points helped to form a narrative and open approach for non-specialist users. While also containing guided filters and routes for specialist audiences and researchers.

The quality of accessioned digital photography meant that individual objects included lightbox views to see details of objects with multiple images at a glance.

Individual objects included contextual data to help drive narration and exploration for users, ensuring there is always a doorway to browse on each page.

The object template also includes keyword links, marks and inscriptions as well as exhibitions the object has featured in.