(R)evolution of the high-load visual art web encyclopedia
The aim of the project was to make art accessible to anyone, anywhere. Today, WikiArt features over 250,000 artworks by 5,000 artists, localized to 8 languages. These artworks are displayed in museums, universities and town halls of more than 100 countries, yet most of it is not on public view. The client claims that they are planning to cover the entire art history of the Earth, from cave artworks to modern private collections.
Industry:
Arts
Region:
Global
Client since:
2016
WikiArt.org is an online visual art encyclopedia users can edit. It can boast of more than 120 thousand artworks, up to 2.5 million visits, and about 10 million page views a month. The encyclopedia operates in seven languages and follows the wiki principle. This means that users can instantly add and edit posts while moderators keep an eye on the changes. The American Library Association named the project one of the 15 best free reference websites.
30% FASTER
Engine performance grew by 30%
2.3M VISITORS
Monthly visits doubled from 1.1 to 2.3 million
1ST PAGE IN GOOGLE
WikiArt is on the first page of Google for artrelated queries
Services and expertise
Challenge
The high-load web portal required new functions and increasing solution performance long before our team started working on WikiArt. The existing engine just didn't allow expanding.
The WikiArt team, who were experts in Arts Domain, also had numerous ideas and improvements waiting to be implemented. And on top of that, the portal was in desperate need of design renovation.
Ievgen Silin
Co-founder of Wikiart.org
“
A complex project like that is always riddled with technical problems. The team that was working on it demonstrated top-notch problem-solving skills. In particular, they showed flexibility in solving challenging UX/UI issues. They successfully managed performance at the peak loads after publications on Reddit, as well as constant intensive load caused by search bots. Finally, during the migration to the updated version, the team synced operations of the old and the new solutions. I definitely recommend them.
Solution
Our cooperation lasted for several years and consisted of two active development phases with a stabilization and maintenance period in between.
Phase 1
In the first phase, we showed our extensive experience in application re-engineering by enhancing and re-designing the web portal's engine.
During this stage, we:
- Implemented new features that prolong the customer journey, including user interaction functionality and advanced search.
- Completely re-designed the UX/UI with attention to the user experience on both mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) and large screens.
- Improved performance through changing the architecture and migrating to the NoSQL database.
Phase 2
In the first phase, we showed our extensive experience in application re-engineering by enhancing and re-designing the web portal's engine.
During this stage, we:
- Implemented new features that prolong the customer journey, including user interaction functionality and advanced search.
- Completely re-designed the UX/UI with attention to the user experience on both mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) and large screens.
- Improved performance through changing the architecture and migrating to the NoSQL database.
The tools and technologies we used were:
Results
Throughout the years of our cooperation, we helped WikiArt become a powerful, modern, best-in-class portal.
The achievements we're most proud of are:
- Engine performance growth by 30%.
- Increase in monthly visits from 1.1 to 2.3 million.
- WikiArt is on the first page of Google search results for art-related queries.
Today, WikiArt is well-known worldwide and recognized as one of the most popular sources of information about art. And we were happy to help it succeed.
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