DEVELOPING AN ONLINE PRESENCEUCLQ2pm – 4pm26 October 2014

Ian Edelman, Head of Online Content, Museum of Islamic Art

DISCUSSION POINTS FOR TODAY

• The MIA website• What is an online presence?• The Digital Museum • Desktop and mobile• What is website content?• Why have a website?• What makes a good website?• Who is it for?• Technical stuff• Building a website• Accessibility• Findability• Measuring and evaluation• Managing and maintaining

September 2012

January 2013

December 2013

WHAT IS AN ONLINE PRESENCE?

• Your website• Your social media spaces• Other websites• Other social media spaces• The digital museum?

MUSEUM WEBSITES IN THE REGION

• Sheikh Faisal Museum, Qatar• Al Sabbah, Kuwait• Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait• Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization

THE DIGITAL MUSEUM

• Netful of Jewels 1999• Is a digital-only space really a museum?• New York Times 23 October 2014

• Examples

• CIA Museum• 20,000 Days on Earth

WHY DO PEOPLE VISIT WEBSITES?

• For a purpose • Diminished importance of homepage• Top Tasks – Long neck and long tail

LONG NECK/LONG TAIL

HOW MUSEUM WEBSITES HAVE CHANGED

1990s Now

One way traffic Two way traffic

Information Entertainment and engagement

Fixed content Dynamic personalised experience

Home Computer On the move

DESKTOP AND MOBILE

• 1.4 billion smartphones are in use in 2013. (Search Engine Journal)

• 61% of people search on their smartphone every day. (Google Mobile Planet)

• Mobile currently accounts for 41% on visits to MIA website (MIA webstats)

RESPONSIVE DESIGN

WEBSITE CONTENT

• Brochureware• Events and activities• Digitised collections – ‘Create Once, Publish Everywhere’• Images• Video/audio• Learning resources• Scholarly research material• About the museum/governance• Press and media information• Online shop• News/Blog

WHO IS YOUR WEBSITE FOR?

• Who is/are your target audience/s? - ‘but I want it for everyone…’

• General visitors - locals, expats, tourists, families, groups etc• Students • Teachers and schools• Scholars – specialist interest

• Who are your stakeholders?

BUILDING A WEBSITE

• Content strategy• Writing a brief• Writing for the web• Customer Journey• Usability• Consistency• Standards• Bilingual in this region – do it right• Iterative development• Testing – User experience• Developer Tools• Continuous improvement• Maintenance and updates

Continuous improvement

DESIGN - LOOK AND FEEL

• Usability• Colours• Full or fixed width• Fonts and font sizes

ACCESSIBILITY

• For visually impaired using page reader/audio-browser• WCAG standards for minimum AA compliance• Semantic markup• Accessible documents – PDF or Word

TECHNICAL STUFF

• Images - gif, jpg, png• HTML5• CSS 3• CMS• Responsive design

Findability

• Search Engine Optimisation• Content Discovery• Content Marketing

MEASURING AND EVALUATION

• Google Analytics - http://www.google.com/analytics• Facebook and Twitter - http://www.museum-analytics.org/facebook/• Facebook - http://socialwatchlist.com/en/list/search/?q=museum• KPIs

FOLLOWING UP

• Museums and the Web Annual Conference (MW)• Museum Computer Group (MCG) - UK• Museum Computer Network (MCN) – USA

Ian Edelmaniedelman@qma.org.qatel 4422 4209

Head of Online ContentMuseum of Islamic Art