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Hi all Really interesting discussion - and it's great to see this issue under active consideration in the early stages of development. I do quite a bit of evaluation and user testing of museum sites, and this area crops up a lot. People do a search thinking they are searching 'museum objects' and get brochureware results - or vice versa. Having multiple discrete online collections makes for even more fun... I think making browsing and searching more intuitive is currently one of the most important but least addressed challenges for cultural sector website developers. In my view there is no hard and fast rule about whether to combine or keep separate boxes. Having one box sounds far more sensible and user-friendly on the face of it, until you watch people trying to get a sense of what the site is all about, what is actually on there, and what they can do with it. Having two separate boxes helps to make the point visually that they are able to do more than one type of search. An alternative of course is to have just one box, but offer them different types of query via check boxes (preferably not a drop down) - but this can confuse... Another approach is to have one box, and clearly separate 'collections' or 'museum objects' from 'brochureware' or 'museum information' in the results, indicating how they can refine the search or move on from there to something else. The simple approach of two boxes with dynamic text offering "Search museum website" and "Search our collections" or equivalent can work well. And carefully chosen images and other visual layout devices can help distinguish these and reinforce the context. I guess the 'site search' is probably the best one to have in the same place on every page, but if the site is particularly strong on collections and does not warrant a site search, the opposite might be true. One approach is to think through a few likely user scenarios for key target audiences and provide appropriate search boxes at appropriate points. The main trap to avoid is the prevalent assumption that magically offering multiple searches via a single box will automatically make things easier for users. For all but researchers and specialist users, knowing roughly what kind of stuff there is to search and what it's for (from their point of view) is at least as important as being able to search through it. Apologies if most of this is stating the obvious. :-) Martin PS A related topic I would love to see discussed is presentation of results, including: - how many results to offer, and how best to present brochureware/collections results separately where appropriate - ranking results by relevance and indicating where search terms occur and by implication how relevance is assessed, Google style. Is this the best approach and if so why do so few sites do this effectively? Is it technically hard to do, or a function mainly of the quality of data in the records, how fields were set up, changing documentation practices, etc? - (on the search pages) strategies for indicating what search terms can be used, what the labels on the various fields in 'Advanced Search' refer to, and how to offer help with Boolean and other high-level search techniques, without drowning out the page, and so on. At 11:30 13/06/2007, James Watson wrote: >Dear all. > >This is an issue we've been thinking about at the National Maritime >Museum for a while now. > >We have catalogues for museum collection and library/ manuscript >collections, we also have a search which runs across our CMS based >'main' site. At the moment they're all separate. We have worked through >various options for integration. Though nothing is live. > >Without wishing to state the obvious, in our experience it's technically >doable to integrate searches across systems with transparent, open >architectures; but when you start trying to integrate proprietary front >ends to proprietary systems (especially, in our experience, library >opacs) it quickly starts to become more difficult (and that tends to >mean expensive). > >Interestingly, a few people have started rolling out integrated searches >across their various catalogues: the British Library, the Library of >Congress and the National Archives have all done this in about the last >year. > >As for synchronising the navigation of an online collections site (of >whatever format) and your 'main' website, clearly it's relatively >straight-forward to use the same look and feel, but as using the same >'options' in the nav on your, say, events page, and on one of your >online collections site pages, might be quite a different matter. > >Another thing I'd be interested in - don't know if anyone knows of any - >would be any specific user (or usability) research, into what punters >would find most useful - specifically, do they want integrated searching >between regular and collections web pages, and do they want integrated >nav between them too? > >Cheers > >James > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >James Watson >Digital Collections Manager >Digital Media Team >National Maritime Museum >Greenwich >London >SE10 9NF >[log in to unmask] >020 8312 8506 >http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/ >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of >Ben Lobo >Sent: 13 June 2007 01:04 >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Integration of Museum brochureware site & searchable online >collections > >Hi Bryan, > >I recently helped to integrate a CALM for Archives catalogue into the >British Postal Museum and Archive's site >(http://postalheritage.org.uk/). > >It's much more than a brochureware site - it's a Plone-based CMS with >tons >of content including, for example, the Phillips Collection of British >Victorian stamps (http://postalheritage.org.uk/phillips) - but we did >face >the sort of issues with regards to separate searches and consistent >navigation that you're referring to. > >We had to do quite a lot of customization work with CALM to maintain the >overall look and feel of the site which was a challenge technically but >it >was well worth the effort, especially for the usability benefits that >followed on from providing a consistent user experience. > >With regards to resolving the issue of two search boxes, it wasn't >technically possible to combine the catalogue search with the sitewide >search in a sensible and usable way within the scope of the project so >we >opted to maintain both searches and make the distinction between the two >as >clear to users as possible to avoid confusion. > >As far as I know, there hasn't been any feedback to suggest that the >presence of the two search boxes causes any significant usability >problems. > >I hope this is useful. > >Regards, > >Ben > >-- >Ben Lobo >Application Developer >Adaptive Technologies Ltd. >+44 (0)1273 728128 >http://www.adaptivetechnologies.com > > >On 6/12/07, Bryan Wills <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > At the London Transport Museum, we will shortly be putting more of our > > collections online, including a 6000 strong poster/artwork collection > > and a re-branded photographic collection consisting 15,000 images. > > > > Many existing Museum sites with online collections have a brochureware > > site and a link to one or more separate searchable collection >resources > > - Many times the two are separate, often with different navigation. >Has > > any out there successfully combined the two? Same navigation with deep > > access to collection materials. > > > > If so, how did you resolve potentially having two search boxes? > > > > Have Museums deliberately stayed away from this integration for > > technical reasons or usability reasons? > > > > I would be very interested if any one has any experience or evaluation > > to support integration of brochureware site & online collections or > > experience to support that the opposite is true. > > > > Thanks Bryan > > > > Bryan Wills > > Head of Digital Resources > > London Transport Museum > > 39 Wellington Street > > Covent Garden, London > > Tel : 02075657288 > > Email [log in to unmask] > > Web http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk <http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/> > > > > > >************************************************** >For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit >the website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk >************************************************** > >______________________________________________________________________ >This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. >For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email >______________________________________________________________________ > > >______________________________________________________________________ >This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. >For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email >______________________________________________________________________ > >************************************************** >For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, >visit the website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk >************************************************** --- Martin Bazley ICT4Learning 15 Margin Drive Wimbledon SW19 5HA 07803 580 727 www.ICT4Learning.com ************************************************** For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit the website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk **************************************************