Web and mobile: December 2013

Share Museums East

Rebecca Atkinson on a relaunched website that helps museums in the East of England share information and resources

Share Museums East’s relaunched website mirrors the organisation’s approach to skill-sharing and peer-to-peer learning by providing people working and volunteering in museums across the East of England with development opportunities, training events and key contacts.

The homepage is fairly static, with text introducing users to Share. But a carousel of images makes it more visually appealing, and there is a useful calendar of forthcoming training events. Simply hover over a highlighted date and the scheduled event pops up. As well as being a useful way for people to find events, the calendar tool also shows just how much is going on.

The new site also features a search and browse functions for training courses and events. Each event includes a Google map of its location and an online booking form. There is also a list of specialist networks in the region.

Elsewhere, users can browse Share’s programmes, which span Arts Council England’s five strategic goals and include collections, digital, audiences, resilience and leadership.

There’s a lot of information under each programme, and it may take those who don’t know what they are looking for a while to go through it all. I suspect a lot of people will use the site to find something specific – and for the most part the navigation is simple enough to get people where they want to be with little fuss.

But it does seem strange that the resources linking to these programmes are elsewhere on the site, when it would appear to make more sense to incorporate them into the programmes.

At the bottom of each webpage is a list of recent blogs, which all sound interesting. My only other gripe is that there isn’t a link in the navigation bar to all blogs – providing one would add a welcome human voice to a functional and informative site, and provide an opportunity for comments and discussion that are somewhat lacking elsewhere.


Visual Arts Glasgow

How a prize-winning website enhances what’s on in Glasgow

Visual Arts Glasgow, a mobile-responsive website showcasing Glasgow’s visual arts scene, recently scooped first prize in the Public Sector category at the Herald Scottish Digital Business Awards 2013.

The site features image-based social media posts from museums, galleries and heritage venues across the city and is managed by Culture Republic.

Users can scroll down the page on their smartphones, tablets or computers, and, if they see something they want to find out more about, follow the responsive link to the relevant webpage. They can also look at the profiles of different venues, including maps, and share the stories on social media channels.

Visually, it’s a shame that the photos on the smartphone version of the site are all in black and white (they change to colour on the computer if you hover over them with the mouse).

The text on each post is taken directly from social media, which means that it can sometimes read a bit strangely. But Visual Arts Glasgow is a great idea and a good example of how venues in a city or region can work together on marketing their events and exhibitions.


No. 1 Royal Crescent

A virtual tour of a historic house in Bath

Following the Bath Preservation Trust’s redevelopment of No. 1 Royal Crescent in the city, this free app for Apple and Android smartphone users offers audiences the opportunity to find out more about the museum before, after and during their visit.

The app includes a virtual tour of the house. Users can zoom in on highlighted objects and find out more with text and BSL interpretation. It’s a shame that there aren’t more objects to look at here, although maybe more will be added in due course.

Elsewhere, there is an introductory film about No. 1 Royal Crescent, which is very atmospheric and features beautiful illustrations and maps but, at more than five minutes in length, it is a little long to watch on a phone.

The most innovative bit of the app is the before and after section. Users can rub photographs of the building before its redevelopment to reveal the new-look house, which has been restored to look as it might have in the late-18th century.

It’s not 100% clear what period the photographs date from, and a little more written information about the history of the property would be useful here. But it’s a fun idea and one that really draws on the unique features of a smartphone app.