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A presentation from Museums and the Web 2010. A Web site, in all domains and in cultural heritage in particular, is meant to support a variety of communication goals, like providing practical information, offering an “at a glance” understanding of what the permanent collections are about, supporting a pleasant and enticing exploration, allowing the user to locate a specific piece of content, as well as promoting the institution’s brand, some selected pieces of content (shop-window effect), etc. As long as the site is small, “traditional” information architecture can cope with these needs. But when the site gets large and information-intensive, the traditional structure starts “cracking” as layers upon layers of navigation are added, and disappointment becomes a common user experience. Straight search engines have provided a reasonable solution to support just one of the above goals: allowing the user to locate a specific piece of content. In this paper we illustrate how Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), combining lightweight information architecture with advanced search paradigms (like faceted search) and interactive visualization strategies, can be used to better support a number of communication goals. The examples are taken from the new Web site for the Directorate General of Antiquity of the Italian Ministry for Culture Heritage (to become public in Autumn 2010), where both a huge amount of content (the Italian archeological heritage) and a variety of users’ profiles (from scholars to amateurs and tourists) are managed. Session: Actionable Research [research] see http://www.archimuse.com/mw2010/abstracts/prg_335002274.html
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IN SEARCH OF NOVEL WAYS TO DESIGN LARGE CULTURAL WEB SITES
Museums and the Web, 2010
S. De Caro – General Director for Antiquities (Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage)
N. Di Blas, L. Spagnolo – HOC-LAB, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
The problemInformation intensive website are "rooms of treasures" where invaluable items are stored. But risks are there. Users may:- get lost- get overloaded by information- never bumpo into intersting stuff (which is
buried under strata of navigation – will it ever be seen by anyone?)
- be unsatisfied by the "paths" offered tothem
- never find what they are looking for (and SEARCH is a power life-vest)
- … "Mona Lisa" – you find it (among other 22 works)"Woman portrait" - no
The wishWhat are our communication goals?- Findability
- Users can easily locate what they are looking for (provided they do know what they are looking for!)
- Serendipity- Users “stumble” into interesting pieces of information
- At a glance understanding- Users can easily make sense of the content
- Playful exploration- Users enjoy browsing the site’s content
- Playful learning- Users learn things as they browse
- Branding- The site conveys the institution’s value (e.g. we are authoritative…)
- …
One “try”
Web site for the Directorate-general of Antiquities in ItalyHuge amount of content forseenMany intended users' profilesPrototype version
A smart combination of:
RIAs (Rich Internet Applications)
Lihgtweight information-architecture
Advanced search paradigms (like faceted search)
More is envisioned
"Fuzzy" facets: Beyond the two-values (yes/no) facets, introducing the concept of relevance
Fish-eye approach: Outputs change according to the "zooming"
ITALY LOMBARDY MILAN
The archeological Museum of
Milan becomes
RELEVANT!
E.g.: looking for relevant museums for "Romans"…
Conclusions- A new generation of (very) large content-intensive
websites, coupling “traditional” engineered Information Architectures (offering strong organization, powerful navigation, context orientation, etc.) with features provided by search patterns and advanced interfaces
- A rich and rewarding experience for the users- For designers, the problem of designing complex
information architectures is SIMPLIFIED and they can CONCENTRATE on communication/cultural issues directly
