We're building a website:The new public homepage

For the last three months I've banged on about the following things:

The general online strategy: Connecting assets to audience via content

Users and user experience

Communication between developers and clients: Wireframes and use cases

The design process

As we prepare to start working with you to upload information into our directory its time to stop being coy and start showing you exactly what the new website will look like and exactly what it will do. 

The public facing site

By now you're familiar with how the website will split in two based on audience: we have the "public facing" part that aggregates the variety of museums, galleries and Aboriginal cultural centres with your exhibitions and events, and trails defined by geography and theme. These trails will be based on existing tourism trails, local council heritage trails and independent journeys described by regional stories. Then there is the "sector facing" site that provides a hub for news, events, services and funding pertinent to the sector.

The magazine content

The homepage is the combination of everything the sector offers. In particular, it provides "magazine" articles to personalise the sector and connect your places with the greater community. These articles will structure the body of the public facing homepage.

The homepage structure

The page is split into three areas: 

- the horizontal navigation;

- the vertical side bar highlighting specific content in relation to the directory, trails   and events plus ways of contacting us (email, twitter, sign up to our e-newsletter);

- the main body featuring stories, articles, interviews, opinion pieces and news.

Horizontal Navigation 

First thing you might notice. Our name has changed.

What does the "of" signify? It's such a little change what does it matter. Well, adding "of" removes some of the government-speak feel of our name. It also goes some way to describing, in very simple terms, what's "in the box". We could have given the public facing site a magazine-style name but why make the user think. 

Click on the sector button and you immediately get access to the second half of our website - the SECTOR side (more on that in a fortnight).  



The navigation is split into our five offers:

These are also mirrored in the side bar, that, like the horizontal navigation appears on every page. 

The side bar

You may wonder why its important to have the side navigation mirroring the horizontal navigation? We asked the same thing and Adrian Wiggins from Pure and Applied (who did our website research) provided the following explanation:

"We only have a moment to connect

Most people will look at our site for less than 10 seconds, and at just one page. We need to do all we can to connect with these people, to reveal our content and features, and win them over to staying 10-20 seconds and looking at a second page. For these people we need to make our site self-evident – it's to our advantage to say the same thing several ways – it builds confidence.

We're providing multiple alternate paths for different exploration styles

When we repeat things in different modes or expressions we're catering to people's different ways of exploring, and avoiding the moment where they can't make sense of things or find a way forward. Here we're catering to several different navigation styles – readers, navigators, searchers. It's hard to say with any certainty how our visitors break down into these categories, so it's just prudential common sense to provide mechanisms for all.

• Readers consume text or visual content to understand the site; 
• Navigators understand a site by parsing the navigation and using it to explore; 
• Searchers use site search tools for particular objectives."

The body of the homepage

The body of the website homepage is made up of modules leading users to an article about a place, event, exhibition or trail. These articles are tagged under umbrella titles such as Treasures (stories about the objects, collections and the people who look after them) or State of the Art (interviews with artists or curators). 

These tags also provide the sub-navigation for the homepage. Click on any one of these tags and you will be taken to a landing page listing all the articles under that umbrella title. 

Why tagging?

We want to follow the lead of our users. Instead of an unchanging navigation we want to measure user engagement with subjects and strengthen the representation of popular content. If the public can't get enough of WWI next year then we'll make this a tagged subject heading on the front page.

In a fortnight, I'll introduce your organisational profile page.  

Access to Funding: VIM Grants

On March 21 M&G NSW, in partnership with the Museum of the Riverina, presented Access to Funding, a workshop delivering skills to make accessing funds a reality. 

Phoebe Arthur
Museum Programs & Collections Coordinator Museums & Galleries NSW 

Phoebe coordinates the Volunteer Initiated Museum (VIM) grant program, including Small Grants, Development Project Grants and Skills Development Grants for volunteer-managed museums. She is also responsible for the delivery of the Standards Review Program, a development program that has so far worked with 89 participating museums across NSW. 

Volunteer Initiated Museum (VIM) Grant Program

The Volunteer Initiated Museum (VIM) Grant Program provides assistance to volunteer-initiated community museums and keeping places in NSW. The VIM Program encourages museum volunteers to build their skills and confidence in both project management and grant applications, by undertaking progressively more complex projects.

The VIM Grant Program is an Arts NSW devolved funding program, administered by Museums & Galleries NSW on behalf of the NSW Government.

We're building a website: What makes good design?

When we last talked about design Toben had presented a preliminary set of concepts and we chose the 'magazine' style layout and "finding the way" as an overall design concept to lead specific elements of the design.

Based on our decisions, Toben delivered the following design ideas. 

They expanded our brand colour palette so we could choose more than pink, green and blue. Not only our website but all our marketing and designed collateral can shift from the existing modern, corporate qualities to a warmer experience (yay!)

 They suggested how the colours could harmonise. 

They suggested design elements based on "wayfinding" and tourism "brown signs". 

And they began to look at how these various elements would come together to display designed, aggregated modules-

And designed interactive features. For example, if the user rolls over a carousel/slideshow item the arrow pushes out with information on it. 

Last week, I asked what designers do in the website building process. Another question I've asked myself constantly in this process is what makes good design? 

Folded into Toben's visual response is research about our sector, about our audience (those we have and those we want to reach) and a clear understanding of our brand, and its potential to influence and engage the public. On top of this Toben needs to consider technical requirements, the user experience and information architecture.

Good design is doing all of the above and making it look easy. 

In the next blog, as we gear up to begin populating the site with your content, we'll take a look at the designed homepages and organisation profile pages. 

Meet Mini Marion!

Railway Coal Mine, Lithgow 1929. Courtesy of the Lithgow State Mine.

Marion is the brand new guide at the Lithgow State Mine and she's just arrived to tell to you about the night of the 1953 fire at the Mine. She’s a captivating guide; wife of one of the miners and she’s on show wearing the very latest ‘50s fashion. Marion tells you about the terrible events of the fire, the dreadful death of the horses and the impacts of the disaster on the miners and the people in Lithgow.

The other thing you need to know about Marion is she’s the latest in clever technology – Marion is a story telling device; she wanders around in her own 3D film perching on various display objects and leaning against the machinery in a Barbie-turns-serious kind of way. She’s engaging, novel and lovable!

The newly installed 3D film is a great showcase for what new technologies can do to bring your Museum alive―assisting people to relate to significant moments in history whether it’s of local or international significance. The team at Lithgow State Mine have an active Facebook page to support their museum and a virtual tour on their website which gives you a great sense of the energy and interest in the place.

So go and meet mini Marion, she’s there every weekend from midday to 4pm. Marion represents some of the benefits of rethinking your Museum interpretation and collection display providing access to personal perspectives, moving stories and a new way to interact with a collection.

Prime7 TV recently did a promotion on mini Marion – have a look at it here

Better Pest Management doesn’t mean more chemicals

Image: Brown Banded Cockroach courtesy of Jim Kalisch, University of Nebraska Department of Entomology. 

This is the title of the most recent blog post by MuseumPests.net. And it comes as a breath of fresh air! 

For a long time, advice in museum pest control was chemical based and long term perspectives on this oh-so-common problem, were missing. But these days there are a number of great resources around which provide action plans and strategies for dealing with all sorts of creepy-crawlies.

The Museum Pest organisation is a supported by a group of collection managers, conservators, entomologists who spend their time thinking about best practice in dealing with vertebrates, invertebrates and mould infestations for anyone with a collection. They meet annually and are hosted by the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

The shift away from kill-them-quick with toxic sprays to a pest management approach where the focus is on preventing infestations, comes at a time when there is growing awareness about the health and safety of the environment in which we work. This incompatibility between toxic chemicals and people, as well as recent research into the impact of chemicals on the collection itself has resulted in significant upheavals in management.

Now much more practical, logical and strategic, sustainable pest management in your museum―be it big or small, old or new is an achievable goal. Have a look at the Museum Pests website― it’s got a host of really useful information to help you achieve it!

Carole Best

Access to Funding: Federal Funding

On March 21 M&G NSW, in partnership with the Museum of the Riverina, presented Access to Funding, a workshop delivering skills to make accessing funds a reality. Below are the presentations from the federal organisations.

Lani Houston
Chief Executive Officer Regional Development Australia (RDA) - Riverina 

Riverina First Community Fund

RDA Riverina operates a small funding program called Riverina First Community Fund that provides funding of up to $2000 for community projects. This funding is only available to the 14 LGAs in the RDA Riverina region. The RDA Riverina Committee also plays a role in the Commonwealth's Regional Development Australia Fund (RDAF). The RDAF program funds capital infrastructure projects identified as priorities by local communities. Round 3 and Round 4 are in progress at the moment. 


The Riverina First Community Fund is philanthropic fund. The fund is now a project of RDA-Riverina. The Commonwealth Government’s Regional Development Australia Fund is administered by the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport.

Sharyn O’Brien
Coordinator, Community Heritage Grants
National Library of Australia

The Community Heritage Grants

The Community Heritage Grants (CHG) program provides funding of up to $15,000 to assist in the preservation of cultural heritage collections of national significance. Not-for profit organisations, such as historical societies, regional museums, public libraries and Indigenous and migrant community groups, are encouraged to apply. This presentation will provide further information for potential applicants on the wide range of activities eligible for CHG grants and how to navigate the new online application process.

CHG is funded by the Australian Government through the National Library of Australia; the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport; the National Archives of Australia; the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum of Australia.

Sharon Babbage
Project Assistant, Operations Australian National Maritime Museum 

Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme

In its 17th year, MMAPSS is an annual grants program providing support to Australian organisations that care for and preserve Australia's rich maritime heritage. This presentation provides an overview of the scheme, describing how to apply with recent successful projects and internships. 

The Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian National Maritime Museum.

We're building a website: Design

If you're anything like me you may wonder about the boundaries that exist between different roles in website production. 

What do web designers do?

Obviously the designers are responsible for all aspects of visual communication on the website. But when website layout and communication are intrinsic to usability the designer's job can blur very quickly with information architecture (the structure and display of information and data) and user experience design (how users encounter and interact with the interface to fulfill tasks). 

Early in the website development, while the research team Pure and Applied collected qualitative data from our audiences, the designers from Toben did their own research to prepare the visual response.

What animal are we?

This research started with Katja Hartung from Toben interviewing Michael Rolfe, Katie Duncan (Info and Resources Officer) and me about M&G NSW's brand identity. There were plenty of normal questions but  there were also some more abstract ones. For example, Katja asked us what animal M&G was. 

There was a moment's hesitation before Katie offered "cattle dog." At first I was suspicious that Katie's near obsession with canines was colouring her response but she then explained that M&G was like a faithful dog steering people towards the best resources and services, and the public ("the cattle"???) towards your wonderful places. Michael and I had to agree that cattle dog sounded pretty good.

What does this have to do with design?

Katja was collecting information about M&G's "personality." Unlike the qualitative data Pure and Applied were pulling, this profile was more expressive, and very much about our own sense of identity. What does the organisation aspire to do? What new audiences do we want to reach? 

When we saw Toben next they had responded to these personality traits with a range of conceptual and visual responses - ways forward in expressing our brand online. What fascinated me was how these conceptual design solutions also informed the user experience. 

'Magazine" versus "Explorer"

Toben discussed two types of user experience, and how they could be visually displayed on the page; the "magazine" and "explorer". The magazine style embraced the diversity of our sector by foregrounding rich editorial and visual content, but maintained a useful browsing function. 

Examples of 'magazine' style design.

The second option was the "explorer" interface. This experience allowed visitors with a particular point of interest in the museum and gallery sector to surface and focus on different content. The keyword search would become an interactive feature, surfacing different content types related to the search. With this version the user leads the content.

Examples of  'Explorer' style design.

As you can see, Toben may be designers but their remit extends to how users interact with the content on the website. Armed with these concepts and Adrian's research and experience we concluded the "magazine" style was our direction forward. M&G would lead the audience to the best stories. 

The concept

Toben also introduced us to four concepts that would "colour" or "personalise" the website - providing visual motifs that could emphasise the user experience.

Showing the Way

Make your own journey

A cultural melting pot

Surfacing treasures

Of the four concepts the first took hold. We appreciated the playfulness of "surfacing treasures" but felt that "showing the way" was a good fit with our online directory and the "magazine style" user experience we were promoting. 

In the following weeks, Toben responded to our first impressions and built up a strong visual brand identity. Next fortnight, we'll introduce you to the look and feel of our new website.