Nalu

Independent digital studio · since 2016

Case studySite and dashboardalunnialberto.com

Alberto Alunni

First website in 2024, redesign in 2026: now Alberto publishes on his own.

Alberto Alunni forges sculptures in iron, stone and wood in his workshop in Pietralunga, in the hills of northern Umbria, and shows them in his showroom in Montone. In 2024 we built his first website; in 2026 we rebuilt it from scratch, with a dashboard so he can update it himself.

See the before and after↓Visit alunnialberto.com
alunnialberto.com home page on desktop, full pageHome page of the 2024 website on desktop, full page
alunnialberto.com home page on mobile, full pageHome page of the 2024 website on mobile, full page
  • Desktop performance100Old site63Lighthouse, before and after
  • Mobile performance100Old site49top marks, on mobile too
  • Main content on mobile1.0sOld site2,2 sHome page LCP
  • Mobile home page weight556KBOld site1.2 MBfrom 40 to 18 requests
  • 112works in one catalogue, including the archive of sold pieces
  • 97exhibitions and events since 1999, grouped by year
  • 3languages with real pages: Italian, English and French
  • 4guided steps to publish an exhibition from the dashboard
Client
Alberto Alunni, iron sculptor, Pietralunga (Perugia, Italy)
Business
One-of-a-kind sculptures, exhibitions, showroom in Montone
Platform
2024: WordPress and Elementor · 2026: Astro and a custom dashboard
Online since
June 2024, redesign since 29 October 2026

One artist, two websites.

Alberto has worked with us since 2024. The first website gave him a home online; the redesign grew out of what two years of exhibitions, works and articles taught us.

  1. June 2024The first website

    Online, with iron at its heart.

    The first goal was to tell who Alberto is and show his work: his story, his solo exhibitions, his works and a form to contact him and visit the showroom.

    • WordPress with Elementor
    • Pages for exhibitions, works and publications
    • Archive of sold works
    • English and French through machine translation
    The home page of Alberto Alunni’s first website, June 2024
  2. September 2026The redesign

    Rebuilt from scratch, and in Alberto’s hands.

    Same works, same photos, but reorganised: one archive per type, exhibitions linked to their works and catalogues, three languages written properly. And a dashboard Alberto uses to publish on his own, one step at a time.

    • Static Astro website, no database
    • Custom dashboard with guided steps
    • Exhibition, works and catalogue linked together
    • Real pages in Italian, English and French
    Alberto Alunni’s home page after the redesign, September 2026

An archive that grew too fast.

  • Updating it required Elementor
  • Exhibitions repeated across pages
  • Machine translation, no pages in English or French
  • Performance 63 on desktop and 49 on mobile
  • Works, exhibitions and catalogues not linked
  • No structured data for exhibitions and works

In two years Alberto opened new exhibitions, got new press and sold many works. The 2024 website grew piece by piece: solo exhibitions in one place, “minor events” in another, publications repeating the same posters. Some exhibitions appeared twice, a few pages were still placeholders.

Underneath were WordPress and Elementor: adding an exhibition meant building the page by hand, which was hard without us. Translations were done on the fly by a plugin, so for Google the site existed only in Italian, even though Alberto’s works have travelled as far as Canada.

The 2024 website: the current Metamorfosi exhibition and the latest past events on the home page
The 2024 website: each exhibition lived in several places on the site, to be updated one by one.

The goalA website that does justice to iron, with the works at its heart and every exhibition linked to its works and catalogue. And one Alberto can update on his own, even from his phone, writing only in Italian.

Drag and see the difference.

After: alunnialberto.com home page
Before: home page of the 2024 website
Old siteNew site
Home

Before, a framed photo and two buttons. Now Alberto at the forge, full screen, the next exhibition in the spotlight and his career in numbers: 27 years, 97 exhibitions and events, 112 works.

Drag the handle or use the arrow keys.

For those who look at the works and for the one who makes them.

01 · Alberto’s dashboard

A new exhibition in four steps.

The dashboard is built for one person: Alberto. An exhibition is created one step at a time: title and dates, texts, photos and publishing. Once it’s saved, the dashboard offers to add the works and then the catalogue; if Alberto answers “I’ll do it later”, he finds them in the “To complete” list.

  • Guided steps for exhibitions, works and publications
  • Photos up to 15 MB or straight from a phone, resized and converted automatically
  • He writes in Italian: English and French follow on their own

Title and datestexts and photosexhibition live

The dashboard: new exhibition, “Title, dates and place” step
The dashboard home on a phone
02 · The works catalogue

A hundred and twelve works, one catalogue.

Recent series and the archive of sold works sit together, with filters by series, availability and type. Every work is one of a kind: “Ask for information” opens the form with the work already filled in.

  • 7 series and 112 works, 56 still available
  • Filters by series, availability and type, on a phone too
  • “Ask for information” pre-fills the contact form
The works catalogue with its filters
The works catalogue on a phone
03 · Linked exhibitions

Exhibition, works and catalogue, always together.

At the top of every exhibition are its three parts: the exhibition, the works on show and the catalogue. The dashboard keeps the links in both directions, and the status updates itself with the date: coming soon, on now, last days, closed.

  • Exhibition, works and publication kept linked by the dashboard
  • Status and countdown worked out every day
  • A timeline of 97 exhibitions and events, filterable by decade
The Metamorfosi exhibition with exhibition, works and catalogue linked
The exhibition page on a phone, with the “Closed” status
04 · Catalogues and press

Catalogues can be leafed through online.

Exhibition catalogues can be leafed through as double-page spreads, like on paper, and downloaded as PDFs. The press section collects 51 articles from 2001 to today, filterable by year; articles about an exhibition also appear on its page.

  • Double-page viewer and downloadable PDF
  • 51 newspaper articles, filterable by year
  • A catalogue can be put on sale with a single switch
The Metamorfosi catalogue, to leaf through page by page
Press coverage filterable by year
05 · Three real languages

Italian, English and French, without rewriting a thing.

Alberto writes only in Italian. When he saves, the dashboard translates into English and French and republishes the site; a translation corrected by hand is never overwritten. Each language has its own addresses, and Google knows which one to show.

  • Automatic translations on save, editable by hand
  • Translated addresses: /en/works/, /fr/oeuvres/
  • Work titles stay the ones Alberto chose
The French home page: “Le fer, matière vivante”
The English home page on a phone

Publishing an exhibition without calling anyone.

What used to need us is now done by the dashboard. Alberto focuses on the works; the rest happens on its own.

  • Live in seconds

    Every save republishes the site: nothing to upload, nothing to remember.

  • Translations on save

    English and French update whenever the Italian changes.

  • Web-ready photos

    Even from a phone: the dashboard rotates them, resizes them and saves them as WebP under 250 KB.

  • Automatic links

    Linking a work to an exhibition updates the exhibition page too, and vice versa.

  • To complete

    An exhibition without works or a catalogue stays on the list until it’s done.

  • Twenty versions back

    Every save keeps the last 20 versions; anything deleted goes to the bin.

  • Exhibition status

    Coming soon, on now, last days, closed: it updates itself with the date.

  • Tidy enquiries

    The form asks for the reason, the work and the day to visit the showroom.

2024 e 2026, point by point.

AreaOld siteNew site
PlatformWordPress with Elementor and pluginsStatic Astro website and custom dashboard
UpdatesPages built by hand in ElementorGuided steps, live in seconds
SpeedPerformance 63 on desktop and 49 on mobile, LCP 2.2 s on mobilePerformance 100 and 100, LCP 0.4 s on desktop and 1.0 s on mobile
WeightMobile home page of 1.2 MB, 40 requestsMobile home page of 556 KB, 18 requests
LanguagesMachine translation through a pluginReal pages in Italian, English and French
ExhibitionsSolo exhibitions and “minor events” kept apart, some repeatedA single archive since 1999, with status and filters
WorksSeries and archive on separate pagesA catalogue of 112 works with filters
PublicationsA page that repeated the exhibitionsFlip-through catalogues and press coverage by year
Data for GoogleOnly generic page dataPerson, gallery, exhibitions, works, books and videos
ContactGeneric formReason, work, visit day and automatic reply

Twenty-seven years of work, finally in order.

20241language seen by Google: Italian
202663old addresses moved to the new pages with a 301

The move was also a tidy-up. We migrated all the content from the old WordPress, merged duplicate exhibitions, moved newspaper clippings into the press section and pointed every old address to the right new page.

  1. 01
    Content migrated

    Exhibitions, works, articles and videos imported from the old site and checked one by one.

  2. 02
    Duplicates merged

    Four exhibitions that appeared twice now have a single page, with their press inside.

  3. 03
    Old addresses

    63 permanent 301 redirects to the new pages; WordPress’s technical pages answer 410.

  4. 04
    Structured data

    Person, gallery, exhibitions as events, works, catalogues and videos, all linked together.

  • 99pages in the sitemap, in three languages
  • 51articles in the press section
  • 100Lighthouse SEO score
The Metamorfosi exhibition page with dates, venue and status
Every exhibition has its own page with dates, venue and status: for Google it’s an event, linked to the works and the catalogue.

At launch, in numbers.

  • 100Desktop performance
  • 100Mobile performance
  • 100Accessibility
  • 100Best practices
  • 100SEO

Lighthouse, 8 November 2026: best values measured on the home, exhibitions and events, and works pages, three runs per page.

Quality checked

  • Accessibility, best practices and SEO at 100 on every page measured
  • Stable layout while loading: CLS between 0 and 0.003
  • Spam-protected form without a captcha, with a confirmation to the visitor
  • Analytics and map only after consent, with a consent log

For the client

  • Independence: exhibitions, works and catalogues are published from the dashboard, even from a phone.
  • A 27-year archive, finally in order and linked together.
  • Foreign visitors welcomed in their own language, without writing everything twice.

What we will measure

The new website has been live since 29 October 2026. Over the coming months we’ll update this case study with form enquiries, visits from abroad and how many exhibitions Alberto has published on his own.

Take this case study with you.

To read at your own pace, share with colleagues or present in a meeting.

For those who want the technical details.

Our roleFirst website in 2024 and redesign in 2026: planning, design, development of the site and the dashboard, content migration, three languages, SEO and launch, with the same point of contact from start to finish.

Architecture
Base
Static Astro with Tailwind CSS and TypeScript: the server delivers ready-made pages.
Dashboard
PHP and JavaScript, no database: content is stored as JSON files, with history and a bin.
Publishing
On save, the dashboard builds the new site and publishes it within seconds on the same server.
Speed
Images
WebP in three sizes, 250 KB at most each, loaded when needed.
Fonts
Cinzel and Lora served from the site, with tuned fallback fonts: no text jumping.
Server
Brotli compression and long caching for photos and static files.
Data and privacy
Analytics
GA4 through Google Tag Manager with Consent Mode v2: without consent, nothing runs.
External content
Map and YouTube videos load only on click, with thumbnails stored on our own server.
Structured data
Person, ArtGallery, ExhibitionEvent, VisualArtwork, Book, VideoObject and FAQPage.
Languages
Translations
English and French via DeepL on save, manual corrections protected.
Addresses
Sections with translated addresses, hreflang and x-default.

The 2024 website was updated by building pages by hand. The 2026 one separates content from design: Alberto fills in the fields, the site rebuilds itself and always stays consistent.

The desktop screenshots of the 2024 website are from 28 October 2026, shortly before the redesign went live; the mobile one comes from the June 2026 archive copy, which is missing the fonts and some images. The dashboard screenshots were taken with test data. Those of the new website are from 8 November 2026; the cookie banner is hidden only in the images. The old website’s figures were measured before the rebuild, the new one’s with Lighthouse on 8 November 2026.

Learn more before you decide.

Keep exploring.

If you feel
the time is right,
it probably is.

Tell us about your project: the assistant prepares the brief in two minutes, then a person from the team replies. No automatic quotes.

MBCBMCThe Nalu team, here for you