Johannesburg, South Africa
Constitution Hill
Constitution Hill
Digital Experience and Mobile App
A four-year engagement covering website redesign, a GPS-guided mobile app, historical video production and strategic social media campaigns for one of Johannesburg's most significant heritage destinations.
Years
2015 to 2019
Scope
Website, App, Video, Social
Role
Designer and Art Director
Background
From museum to living destination, online and off
Constitution Hill is one of South Africa's most significant historical sites, housing the Constitutional Court and the former prison complex where Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi were once held. During this engagement, the institution was actively evolving from a museum-only venue into a broader lifestyle destination, hosting events alongside its daily tours.
The existing corporate identity was established, but it needed effective adaptation across online platforms. The digital presence did not reflect the depth of the site's history, the breadth of its programme, or the quality of the experience it offered to visitors. A fragmented website, an absence of mobile capability, and an underutilised social presence were holding the institution back from the audience it deserved.
The Challenge
A rich, complex institution with years of unorganised information and no coherent digital strategy
Information overload
Years of content had accumulated without clear structure. The website was difficult to navigate, and visitors could not find basic information easily or quickly.
No mobile presence
Visitors arriving at the site had no digital companion for their physical tour. The guided experience relied entirely on physical staff, limiting scale and self-directed exploration.
Underutilised story
Constitution Hill holds extraordinary historical material, but very little of it was accessible or engaging in digital form. The story was not being told in a way that could reach new audiences.
Website Redesign
A new information architecture to carry the full weight of the institution
The redesign began with an opening video on the landing page, produced and edited specifically to convey the scale and atmosphere of the site before a visitor had read a single word. From there, the information architecture was rebuilt from scratch to give the content the structure it needed.
The three-tier navigation system
Top Menu
- Booking details
- App promotion
- Contact information
- Social media links
- Search
Utility-first. Everything a visitor needs before they commit to exploring.
Primary Menu
- Main website links
- Clear content hierarchy
The main navigational spine. Structured to reflect the institution, not the internal filing system.
Side Menu
- Section-specific links
- Contextual browsing
Contextual depth on each page, so visitors who want more can find it without leaving their current section.
Page layout and visual identity
Most pages followed a consistent three-column layout with prominent heading titles, background header images, and supporting text. Three highlight colours were used alongside black and grey text, maintaining visual clarity while staying within the established corporate identity. Typography was chosen to carry the existing brand without deviation.
Mobile App
The Conhill App: a GPS-guided companion for every visitor
The mobile app transformed the on-site visitor experience by giving every person who walked through the gates access to a guided tour in their own hands. The app used GPS-enabled beacons placed strategically around the Constitution Hill precinct to trigger contextual audio and video content as visitors moved through the space.
GPS Beacon Navigation
Strategically placed beacons triggered content at each point of interest, providing precise, location-aware guidance without requiring an internet connection at every step.
Audio and Video Integration
Rich multimedia content was embedded throughout the tour experience, turning historical information into an immersive journey rather than a text list.
News and Events Portal
A dynamic content section kept visitors informed about ongoing exhibitions, events and activities at the venue, encouraging repeat visits.
Branded Promotion
The app was promoted across social networks and partner websites as part of a coordinated digital strategy to drive downloads before visitors arrived.
The Conhill App gave every visitor the ability to guide themselves through four centuries of South African history, at their own pace, with the full story available in their pocket.
Video Production
Telling history through image and sound
A series of videos and montages was produced to weave together archival photographs and current imagery into compelling storylines about the site's history. These were not promotional videos. They were storytelling tools designed to give people an emotional connection to a place before they visited, and a deeper one while they were there.
Self-guided tour assets
Videos embedded within the app and website gave visitors the historical context they needed to interpret what they were seeing at each location.
Website content
Produced and edited the opening video for the website landing page, designed to convey the atmosphere and scale of Constitution Hill before any copy was read.
Heritage documentation
Archival photo montages documented significant spaces including Number 4, creating a lasting digital record and educational resource alongside the visitor experience.
Social Media and Events
Building community around a place with real cultural weight
Social media campaigns were developed to build a consistent and engaging presence for Constitution Hill across platforms, reflecting the institution's dual identity as a historical site and a current events destination.
Kaya FM co-branding: 20th anniversary
A notable collaboration was developed with Kaya FM as co-sponsor for Constitution Hill's 20th-anniversary celebration. Web banners were designed to serve as co-branding elements, promoting the anniversary event and reinforcing the partnership between two respected Johannesburg institutions. The campaign appeared across both entities' digital channels, extending reach to Kaya FM's established audience.
Basha Uhuru event page
A dedicated event page was designed for the annual Basha Uhuru event, one of Johannesburg's flagship youth culture celebrations, held at Constitution Hill. The page was prominently featured in the website's events section, serving as both an information resource for attendees and a co-branding platform for sponsors and partners. The design balanced institutional identity with the energy of the event itself.
Full Scope
Four years of full-spectrum digital work across every channel
Outcomes
A digital presence worthy of one of South Africa's most important sites
Over four years, Constitution Hill gained a structured website that could finally carry the weight of its content, a mobile app that extended the guided tour experience to every visitor independently, and a video library that made its history accessible and emotionally compelling in a digital format.
Social media campaigns built a growing online presence and strategic co-branding work with partners like Kaya FM helped the institution reach audiences beyond its existing visitor base. Every touchpoint, from the landing page to the app to the social channels, was brought into alignment with a single, coherent digital identity.
The engagement demonstrated that a heritage institution with a complex history and a broad programme can be made fully accessible, navigable and compelling through disciplined information architecture, purposeful design and genuine storytelling.
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