I see Nick Poole just posted this: http://t.co/9HTlM9IUQN ..in which he talks about "..moving from creating digital images and database records to editorialised, narrative content" ..he's a good chap, Nick.. _____________________________ *Mike Ellis * Thirty8 Digital: a small but perfectly formed digital agency:http://thirty8.co.uk <http://thirty8.co.uk/> * My book: http://heritageweb.co.uk <http://heritageweb.co.uk/> * > Oluwatoyin Sogbesan <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > 8 April 2014 20:30 > Hi Mike, > > I have benefitted from this discussion as my research is focused on > the potentials of digital technology in the representation of museum > collections. > > In addition to Tony’s more 'stories /less is better/ curated’, it will > be more interesting and rewarding if such visitors can participate in > the interpretation of those important collection. > > As they might have a prior experience or relationship with the object > which will also add to the resource of the museum about specific objects. > > Cheers > Toyin > > > > > > > > > **************************************************************** > website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ > Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg > Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup > [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/ > **************************************************************** > Mike Ellis <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > 6 April 2014 10:34 > Thanks Elena, really interesting - again..! > > To everyone else: do you research before putting your collections > online? How, and what has this shown you about user wants and needs? > > Does Tony's "more stories / less is better / curated" resonate with > your users? I know it does with me.. > > cheers > > Mike > > > Elena Villaespesa <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > 4 April 2014 03:27 > Hello Mike, > > > Yes, the survey was shown to people after they had visited at least 3 > pages > and spent at least 10 seconds on a page. There are some data at the end of > the report that compares the respondents profile with GA data. The > objectives of this survey were to understand better how people use the > online collection and get people's feedback so that's why we decided to > target people who had spent some time on the website, especially for new > visitors who are not familiar with it. > > > Bounce rate is approx. 50% on average for collection pages but it really > varies by traffic source and there are other variables to take into > account. Bounce rate is much higher from social media sites and online > newspapers for example because the behaviour is to follow the link and > then > go back to your wall, feed or news site. And then regarding Google traffic > there are some differences too, especially between people searching > specifically for Tate content or people that end up on the collection > because they are searching for art terms. This is what the SEO people call > branded vs non branded traffic but unfortunately GA does not show this > data > anymore in the reports. For example, some people search on Google directly > for "Tate Ophelia Millais" so they arrive to the page they want and once > they get the info they leave but probably they have the same motivation as > someone who comes to the Tate website and then search for Ophelia or > browse > the site to get to the artwork page. So it's useful to combine analytics, > surveys and other tools. > > > Regarding your second question, this is actually a hard one. I guess it > depends on the percentage of people who come to plan a visit vs other > purposes (audience needs) but also on the museum's objectives. Based on > another survey we've done, this one on the whole website, approx. half of > the visits are not related to the gallery visit but other purposes such as > research, download images, get some inspiration... The Tate website > would not > probably have this big amount of this type visits without having put the > collection online, or bounce rate would be much higher because there is no > content to look at. But it's also true that 17% of people came to the > online collection to see what's on display so there is a basic need to > cover for those who are planning a visit. > > > So probably the best thing to do is some research first as the results > from > a smaller organisation may be or not similar to ours. ;-) > > > Elena > > > > **************************************************************** > website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ > Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg > Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup > [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/ > **************************************************************** > Richard Light <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > 3 April 2014 14:53 > > Blog /style/, but ideally organised so that the resulting rich > descriptions become part of, or are accessible from, their underlying > collections database. It would be a great pity to do all that work > and waste it as a web-only resource. :-) If nothing else, the > collected stories could become the next must-have coffee table book. > > Richard > Tony Crockford <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > 3 April 2014 12:06 > > I’d like to see smaller institutions creating curated collections - > blog style. > > e.g. a decent story about their important/interesting objects. maybe > one a week, one a month, or whatever is manageable - it’ll soon become > a valuable and interesting online resource. > > As an Internet user I’d rather see a few detailed and interesting > stories than hundreds of images with sparse metadata. > > For many the online objective should be to treat the ‘collections’ > part of their website as a curated exhibition, with unlimited space to > exhibit a few items in great detail. > > I think the future is all about stories from the past. > > :) > > **************************************************************** > website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ > Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg > Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup > [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/ > **************************************************************** **************************************************************** website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/ ****************************************************************