CONCEPT Concept Introduction Preliminary Questions Stakeholder Input Focus Group Questions Resource Inventory Contributing Factors Considering Realities Considerations for Small Websites Considerations for Medium Websites

Concept - Website Considerations for Medium Websites

Just as museums are sometimes categorized into 'small, medium, and large' scale operations, the number of pages, the types of activities, and the design approach can help define educational websites. Medium sized museums often build websites that offer a significant number of pages of content. They sometimes host educational content specifically geared towards interactivity and have collections, research, or archival materials available in database formats. Medium sized websites are often developed and maintained by in-house web development staff or professional web design companies.

Resources

How are you going to use your budgetary and human resources when planning your website? How much time and money is allocated to your website? Do you have web or graphic design professionals on staff at your museum? Are you hiring professionals or consultants to work on your website? Have the website professionals presented educational content before?

Size

How many web pages are required to effectively support your museum's goals? If your website has more than fifty pages, you will likely need some sort of searching mechanism. If there are less than fifty pages, you will need to organize your pages in a user-friendly format so that information is easy to find and revisit. Do you have enough pages to effectively present your content or so many pages that your visitor loses interest?

Scope and Focus

If you are implementing a searchable database, are you also considering digitizing your collection and hosting it on your website so that visitors can search your collection, archives or programs? Are you planning to host audio or visual components such as interviews or oral histories? Who will write the content for your pages? Who will approve the content, confirm its accuracy, and assure copyright requirements? Will your website content reflect the various professions at work in your museum? For example, will teachers be able to contact your conservation lab or visit your collections storage? The more content you host, the greater your need for good content management practices and regular input from the various professional disciplines represented on your website development team.

Technology

In addition to text and images, medium-sized websites often use interactive technologies to share their message. Hosting more web pages provides an opportunity to share more information using different delivery approaches. For more information about specific technologies in use on websites, visit the design section of this website.

Great examples of medium-scale websites:

Canada Aviation Museum

http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/index1.htm
This new website offers visitors access to information about a number of services areas at the museum from special events to collections.

Museum of Anthropology

http://www.moa.ubc.ca
This website shares information about the origin, tradition, and re-representation of a totem pole. The website follows one story line using interactive technology to share its message.

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

http://www.aggv.bc.ca/
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria shares information about its gallery and collections. Visitors to the site do not need to download plug-ins to view the numerous pages. Careful menu options keep this website design clean and visitor friendly.

Chilliwack Museum and Archives

http://chilliwack.museum.bc.ca/
This community based museum shares its collections and archival materials through images and texts.