Effective museum websites

A museum website needs to be a jack of all trades and, in the best possible sense, master of none. Most types of website – from Amazon to YouTube – have one job to do. But museum websites are a necessary menagerie, featuring visitor information, online ticket purchasing, ways to donate, online shops, collections research, educational material, blogs, project work and more. All of these need to be showcased effectively and designed efficiently under one web domain. 

“Most commercial websites have just one business model,” says Chris Unitt, the founder of digital analytics and user research consultancy One Further, which specialises in cultural organisations. “Museums are fascinating from a digital point of view because their websites have just about every business model going. That is why they’re gnarly and complicated and everyone pulls their hair out over how to design museum websites effectively.” 

Simple, effective design that keeps the user experience in mind will yield the best results, with flexibility likely to trump cutting-edge design. A museum’s website is its main marketing tool, so it is important to keep the messages as clear as possible. 

Grant Bird, the audience analyst and communications and marketing manager at the Black Country Living Museum (BCLM), says: “The website is a key channel for connecting with our audiences – both as an information resource and an e-commerce platform. It enables people to discover what’s on, and the ticketing functionality means people can seamlessly book for both general admission and special events. 

“Our website also provides a rich learning resource across education key stages and is a place for people to find out more about the museum’s vision and mission.”

Paul Hudson-Knight, the head of marketing at the Royal Air Force Museum, says its website is central to the museum’s activities. 

“We haven’t got the budget to compete with the major entertainment industry centres, so for us it’s integral to our strategy that we’re capturing people while they’re out and about on their day-to-day business.” 

“We felt it was very important that we had an intuitive, accessible website so that people could interrogate us as much as possible before they decided to visit. And we really do feel that has worked wonders for us: over the past six months our visitor numbers have doubled. We put that down to the fact that we have moved from above-the-line advertising to an integrated digital campaign that promotes the website.”

Despite the wide variety of content, the most visited pages on a museum site are likely to be the homepage and those listing visitor information. However, website users can be guided to certain areas of the site, either through what is on the homepage, or through so-called deep linking: not as technical as it sounds, this means using hyperlinks through social media campaigns, bypassing the homepage entirely.  

For example, the RAF Museum tailors the content it displays on its homepage to important dates on the calendar, using a rolling banner. It has seen success not only by directing families to holiday activities during summer holidays, but also in a more interpretive way by highlighting the online exhibition Pilots of the Caribbean during Black History Month. 

Deep linking has been a success for BCLM, says Bird. “We use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to engage and inform our audiences – particularly for reaching those who are new to the museum. By deep linking to our website from our social media posts, we can drive traffic to the site so that people can discover more about the museum and fulfil their booking requirements.”

The RAF Museum has not only prioritised digital marketing over print, it has also focused on producing a website that works well on mobile phones. According to Deloitte, smartphone ownership overtook laptop ownership in 2016, and in 2018, 87% of the population aged 18-75 own a smartphone – with 95% of those having used their device in the last 24 hours.

“It’s integral to our strategy that we’re capturing people while they’re out and about,” says Hudson-Knight. “The most important thing about your website is that if it’s not immediately accessible to people when they are making their decisions about their leisure time then it’s basically useless.”

The BCLM has introduced a bespoke mobile site in response to this demand. “The majority of our traffic now comes from the mobile site,” says Bird. Visitor analysis also shows that people visiting the mobile site prioritise ticket booking over information gathering, so the museum has responded by making the booking button even more prominent on mobile.

Museums have a vast range of stories they can tell, but it’s vital to make sure that they are accessible. 

The RAF Museum has established a “digital champions” scheme in which every department has an individual who is responsible for that department’s website content, ensuring its accuracy and that it is regularly updated. 

Trained staff can update content to the museum’s website, and it is then checked for grammar, accuracy, style and accessibility by web editors, based in the marketing team, before being published.

A newly appointed digital communications executive is also running workshops in order to build digital skills and confidence across the museum. 

“Often, staff can feel that the website is marketing’s responsibility and that it’s not really theirs,” says Hudson-Knight. “But every single member of the organisation has a story to tell, and those stories are fascinating for people outside your organisation. We wanted to empower various teams so that if they wanted to, they could tell their stories.”

Alongside analytics and user testing, it can be useful to keep in mind certain key principles when designing, updating and developing a museum website. 

At the BCLM, says Bird, these include the following: 

Making sure that user experience is at the centre of everything is vital, says Bird. 

“You need to be clear about who the information is for, and what you want people to do as a result,” he says. “Without this, a website can quickly become very large, difficult to navigate and of interest primarily to internal stakeholders – rather than a means of engaging those audiences who we have a responsibility to serve.”