When the COVID-19 Pandemic caused lockdowns across the globe, the University of the Arts London set out to create a virtual exhibition space to continue to showcase its students' work. Matthew was hand-picked by his professor as part of a team of two students and five faculty members, tasked with creating a virtual exhibition space that met the university's standards of accessibility, sustainability, and high-level design.

• Create a virtual exhibition space to showcase art and design work across the university's vast array of disciplines.
• Foster art and design appreciation, student and faculty discourse, and public interaction with the students' work.
• Minimize the GHG emissions produced by web-traffic on the platform by simplifying the visitor experience.
• Adhere to the University of the Arts London's accessibility guidelines in order to foster an inclusive digital space.

After careful consideration of the accessibility and sustainability requirements, the team experimented with the various interactions that the website could include. Mindful of reducing any instance of hierarchy in students' work, and in keeping with the specific requirements of the brief, a prototype was created before the primary build of the platform.

• Experimented with various models in order to find the most optimal design for the parameters.
• Remaining mindful about how students and the public would interact with the artwork, the team built a prototype.
• Figma was used to create the basis for the build, with emphasis on user interface.

Every element of the design was carefully considered in order to best adhere to the guidelines set out in the brief. A simplified yet still beautiful interactive exhibit, the site became a meeting space for students and an exciting new chapter in the university's art and design exhibition processes.

• Project exhibitions remain on the same page as their description of process in order to minimize site traffic and simplify the viewing process.
• The Microsoft Sans Serif Font consists of only one weight, and all buttons are flat so as to be created in code rather than image.
• A gateway is utilized to create a barrier against bot traffic as well as optimize the visitors' experience with the site.
• Visual content is by default low-resolution bitmapped, with the option to be viewed in full color and form.
• The cursor includes a timer, which helps remind users not to leave the webpage open when not in use, thereby reducing GHG emissions.