As far as web design goes, I've found the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C)
Guidelines particularly helpful http://www.w3.org/WAI/. Many museum's sites
are great flashy things, but they can be difficult to use, rely on certain
browsers, or have other design problems that prevent potential audiences
from using the sites.
Recently, I helped renovate a section on the ASTC web site on making museums
accessible to visitors with disabilities. We thought it was especially
important to practice what we preached when it came to the accessibility of
our web pages. Using web design checklists and consulting with web users
who are blind, we tried to create a site that is universally accessible.
Our site is nothing fancy, but you can get to the content you want with
relative ease, which is the goal, I think. Our hard work was recognized at
the 2001 Museums and the Web Conference, where www.astc.org was awarded the
prize for best museum professional's site.
I'm not a web designer by trade, but I do use the web a lot and have found
myself designing pages. I value content over aesthetics and I appreciate a
site that is easy to use. If all I've got is a shoestring budget, I'd prefer
to spend my design time thinking about how people will get around a site and
how I want to organize it. I try to keep the audience in mind and what I can
do with the design to make their experience using the site as easy and
pleasant as possible. The W3C guidelines are helpful because they provide
advice on how to make the browsing experience easy and painless. Also, the
design process is an ongoing thing, I'm always looking for something that
can make the lives of virtual visitors easier when they come to a site.
For those of you interested, there is a listserv for the discussion of
issues related to the development of World Wide Web services at museums
called MUSWEB-L. You can subscribe by writing to: [log in to unmask] and
putting in the body of the message: SUBSCRIBE MUSWEB-L yourname. I'm not on
this listserv, but I thought I'd pass the info along in case it is useful.
I am interested to see how the style guide on museumstuff.com works out.
There are already many style guides out there, though, so in the meantime
don't feel like you're out there without any resources to fall back on. Good
luck to all those of you out there working on museum web pages.
Sandra Saluke
Education Projects Assistant
Association of Science-Technology Centers, Inc.
1025 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005-3516
(202) 783-7200 ext. 128
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Roy Hemmat
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 2:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: New Website
Aaron wisely recommended:
>Maybe the real answer is to highlight those websites that are GOOD.
Oh . OK .. You've forced me to submit one of my site's links again ;-)
http://www.museumstuff.com/showcase
Also . I heartily recommend
http://www.museumstuff.com/exhibits
And as far as a "style guide" for museum websites goes .. that will
be made available soon .. Compliments of the webmaster who has
personally visited and reviewed over 3000 museum websites over the
past year or two.
It's a dirty job .. but somebody's gotta .. (well. You know the rest)
Roy Hemmat
[log in to unmask]
http://www.museumstuff.com
** winner .. Best E-Services Solution, Museums and the Web, 2001
** As seen in the Philadelphia Inquirer, focus on museums
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