Web and mobile

No more Tring, no more NaturePlus: Rebecca Atkinson likes the new look of this website that has made navigation simpler

London’s Natural History Museum launched the first pages of its new-look website in January, and although some sections of the website still use the old design, the soft launch is being used to gather feedback and monitor visitors’ behaviour.

There is now a simpler and clearer navigation bar. Gone are obscure options such as “NaturePlus” and “Tring”.

Instead “Visit” reveals a drop-down list, such as “What’s on” and “Facilities and access”, as well as a map and brief directions, while “Take part” promotes the museum’s various crowdsourcing projects, competitions and volunteering opportunities. And “Our science” links to courses, a data portal and collections.

The homepage has a large highlights carousel that sits just above the fold – on my computer, scrolling down caused the page to jump, a minor but annoying fault.

Underneath is a selection of videos, blogs and images, all of which also sit under “Discover” on the navigation bar. There are also the latest tweets from the museum and the option to sign up to its newsletter.

The previous website gave prominence to registering and sign-in options, but these are now gone (or have been hidden), an interesting move away from an attempt to personalise and collect specific information. The important stuff, such as visitor information and learning, is now the centre of attention, and rightly so.

The redesign of the museum’s online shop is also an interesting development; the categories are clear and all the product information is enticing, making the whole experience much closer to what the modern-day consumer expects from internet retailing. I’m sure many other museums will be interested to see how it performs.


A new website giving information on eight different venues does exactly what it needs to do

The new Birmingham Museums website provides visitors with information for the eight venues run by the independent trust. A side menu of these venues allows you to find out visitor information, highlights from the collection, venue hire and so on.

There are virtual guided tours, brief but stimulating information on topics such as pre-Raphaelite art, industrial heritage and the English civil war, and plenty of large, attractive photographs of people enjoying the museums.

The main navigation bar covers Birmingham Museums as a whole, allowing people to search for events and exhibitions in the city.

It’s annoying that headlines for exhibitions and events aren’t displayed in full, but I liked the fact that essential information, such as whether booking is required, is displayed without having to click through.

The site isn’t quite finished and there are plans to add a collections search in due course, but its clean and logical design means it ticks all the boxes for a large museum service with a lot going on.


Rebecca Atkinson struggles with this audioguide app for museums and galleries

At the Museums Association’s Let’s Get Digital seminar in January, the issue of how apps can be useful for museums raised its head. One speaker, Andrew Lewis from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, said that one potential area where apps could offer value would be as in-gallery audioguides.

Periplus is an audioguide app designed for museums and galleries around the world. At the time of writing, audioguides for about 20 museums were featured.

According to the marketing material, the app uses text-to-speech technology, so museums don’t need to create lots of voice recordings. From a user’s perspective, the app runs offline – you simply download the guide in advance of your visit. I tried it with the British Museum’s guide.

The text-to-speech technology doesn’t recognise tone, so it makes for a painful listening experience. And from an introductory page, there is no menu – just a search bar that doesn’t support manual searches. I had to try a few terms before I hit gold and a list of suggestions popped up.

If you don’t mind listening to a computer-generated voice reading long pieces of text, then this could be the app for you. If not, I would recommend you splash out on a museum or gallery guidebook instead.