Hi John
I really like the idea behind this approach. It establishes an open, friendly tone and gets people right into the objects straight away, with lovely full screen images and onward routes.
Lovely the way you have the tags on the right hand side as well.
Two suggestions:
1.(usability) make the whole of each panel clickable rather than just the button at the bottom.
2.(sustaining and deepending engagement) offer a few small curated collections of objects rather than a series of individual ones. And/or a few narrative pieces based on small numbers of objects for people to follow along. I imagine you were probably already intending to create 'layers' above the online collection itself.
It looks pretty good on an iPhone too.
Best
Martin
----------------------------------------------------
Martin Bazley
Digital heritage consultant
Martin Bazley & Associates
15 Margin Drive
Wimbledon
SW19 5HA
0780 3580 727
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www.martinbazley.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Coburn
Sent: 13 July 2015 12:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MCG] Novel cross-collections interface
Hi everyone,
I thought I'd share v1 of a new collections interface Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums has been working on over the past year with Newcastle Uni and Microsoft Research. It's been funded as part of Nesta's Digital R&D for the Arts programme.
It's intended to serve as a novel cross-collections interface encouraging 'non-specialist' audiences to browse and stumble across intriguing/surprising artefacts. Hopefully providing a simple and compelling search experience.
http://collectionsdivetwmuseums.org.uk
http://greatnorthmuseum.org.uk/collections/collections-search (via GNM: Hancock, one of our museums)
The system is designed to present collections in response to our current interpretation of how you use it. Ie. How engaged you are with what you're seeing. It currently exposes 32,000 records.
It is not intended to replace traditional catalogue/text search (this system is also being relaunched very soon). It should complement it and provide a simple alternative for anyone without the skills or inclination for doing this.
We're still working on a software development kit. The plan is that any museum/archive/etc who wants to use it for their collection can adopt it relatively easily. I can share more as and when for anyone interested.
Any comments/questions/bugs spotted, feel free email me away from the list!
Cheers,
John.
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