CSMVS

Designing Digital Simplicity for India’s Cultural Treasure

Knowledge Is Free. Just Bring Your Own Container.

The Story

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) is more than a museum—it’s a living archive of India’s history, art, and culture. But as footfall increases and digital expectations grew, the museum needed to modernize its digital experience. That’s when they partnered with 12Grids to reimagine their website and ticketing platform.

The goal?

Make India’s heritage more accessible — beautifully, intuitively, and efficiently.

Problem Identified

As a prestigious cultural institution welcoming thousands of visitors each month, CSMVS needed more than just a website—it needed a well-orchestrated digital ecosystem. The existing system fell short in providing a unified experience, which posed several key challenges:

Outdated UI & Inconsistent Visitor Journey

The museum’s website was cluttered, visually dated, and lacked storytelling finesse. Visitors couldn’t easily browse exhibitions, book tickets, or plan their visit. Also, the brand experience was inconsistent across devices, creating friction for both tourists and local visitors.

Fragmented Ticketing Across Channels

Whether buying tickets online, at the physical counter (box office), or via kiosks, each experience felt disconnected. There was no unified interface or brand tone. Ticketing interfaces at different touchpoint looked and behaved differently, leading to confusion and operational inefficiencies.

No Mobile-First Approach for On-the-Go Users

Tourists often discover and access museum info on their mobiles, yet the existing website and ticket flow wasn’t responsive. The webpages broke, forms were clunky, and the buying experience lacked ease—costing the museum conversions and visitor trust.

Outdated UI & Inconsistent Visitor Journey

Fragmented Ticketing Across Channels

No Mobile-First Approach for On-the-Go Users

Our Solution

Our approach to the CSMVS Mumbai Museum project was driven by one core principle:

Design a seamless, inclusive, and unified visitor experience across every touchpoint—online, on-site, and on-the-go.

We treated the ticketing system not as a backend module, but as a public-facing extension of the museum's brand—one that must evoke trust, elegance, and clarity while being operationally efficient.

End-to-End Custom Ticketing Platform

We developed a flexible ticketing engine that supports:

• Online booking with real-time seat/pass availability
• QR code–based e-tickets with instant delivery via email & WhatsApp
• Box office module with a quick-sell interface and manual override
• Touchscreen kiosk UI designed for walk-in visitors with minimal digital friction
• Group bookings, event-based ticket types, and visitor category discounts

Design System for Unified Experience

We built a consistent design language and UI system to ensure every ticketing interface—from the museum’s website to kiosks and the box office counters—looked and felt the same. This included:

• Shared components for layout, typography, and button styles
• Language support for accessibility and multilingual visitors
• Visual tone that reflected the museum’s calm, heritage-rich identity

Kiosk Design Aligned to Heritage

Designed touchscreen kiosks that blend modern usability with the museum’s timeless charm

Secure & Trustworthy Transactions

Handling payments—especially across online, kiosk, and box office environments—meant building a ticketing system users could trust without hesitation.

We ensured end-to-end encryption and PCI-DSS compliant practices across all transaction touchpoints.

Mobile-First Booking Experience

Understanding that a majority of users are mobile-first, we designed the entire journey—from event discovery to checkout—for small screens.

What did we achieve?

40% increase in digital ticket bookings within the first 3 months

Reduced average booking time across kiosk and online by 50%

Significant drop in on-ground wait time during weekends and public holidays

Positive visitor feedback on kiosk’s ease-of-use & payment clarity

What Our End Customers Said

“The kiosk experience was so smooth—no lines, no confusion. We booked tickets in minutes!"
Ritika D., Museum Visitor

“The new website looks beautiful and is super easy to navigate. I booked a group tour without any help.”
Akhil R., History Enthusiast

“Loved the QR code tickets on WhatsApp—no paper, no hassle. Really thoughtful design!”
Sneha M., International Tourist