MW2007 featured a variety of interactions so you could learn from the concrete experiences of others. Mini-Workshops introduce tools, methods, or techniques. Crit Rooms featurde a review of museum Web sites in "real time" and testing of attendees' Web sites took place in the Usability Lab. Graduate students got together in the Research Forum to discuss their work.
Interactions are listed chronologically below, or you can see an overview of the program.
Research Forum
Join your peers for a discussion of research in progress. Share problems, methods and strategies, and make contacts.
| Thursday April 12, 2007 | |
| 8:30 pm- 11:30 pm Research |
Building Community in Graduate/Doctoral Student Ranks |
Mini-Workshops
Focused one-hour mini-workshop sessions are designed to introduce specific tools, methods, or techniques for developing, maintaining and evaluating museum Web sites.
| Saturday April 14, 2007 | |
| 12:30 pm- 1:30 pm Technology |
Instant Multimedia: Results from the Mini-WorkshopNicoletta Di Blas, Paolo Paolini, Italy, Davide Bolchini, Switzerland |
Professional Forums
In each Professional Forum, the Convener will present an issue or proposal and allow MW attendees to voice their opinions. You can speak out about the proposals and make suggestions.
| Friday April 13, 2007 | |
| 9:30 am- 10:30 am Accessibility |
Accessibility 2.0Accessibility 2.0: A holistic and user-centred approach to Web accessibilityStephen Brown, Brian Kelly, United Kingdom |
| 11:00 am- 12:00 pm Indigenous |
Indigenous CultureForum for Indigenous Culture Building and PreservationSophie Lissonnet, , Liddy Nevile, Australia |
| 1:00 pm- 2:00 pm Contributed Content |
WikisMuseum Documentation and Wikipedia.de: Possibilities, opportunities and advantages for scholars and museumsThomas Tunsch, Germany |
| 3:30 pm- 4:30 pm Education |
School of TechSchool of Tech: Educating experts in cultural heritage multimediaClaudia Schallert, Austria, Shelley Mannion, Switzerland |
Usability Lab
On Friday, April 13, Michael Twidale and Paul Marty will run a live Usability Lab. You'll be able to:
- observe simple, low-cost, high-speed user testing of museum Web sites in action;
- volunteer to participate as a user tester and discover some of the problems users have on unknown sites; and
- volunteer your site to be tested.
Each user test lasts about 20 minutes (with time for comments and questions) and people drift in and out of the session. Sites to be tested are not evaluated in advance and volunteer users are selected at random.
The "user" leaves the room while the owner of the site describes what they consider a typical scenario– something the average user would be trying to do. This scenarios is converted into a task and given to the user to perform along with some randomly selected standard tasks. After each test, the user, site owner, test administrators and audience will discuss what was learned.
Twidale and Marty will demonstrate a variety of testing techniques throughout the day, but will emphasize the thinking-aloud method so it is easy to follow along with the test subject. For more information about this technique, see Marty and Twidale's article Usability@90mph in First Monday.
If you are interested in seeing your site in the Usability Lab, please contact Space is limited, and sites will be selected by the organizers.
| Friday April 13, 2007 | |
| 10:00 am- 12:00 pm Evaluation |
Usability Lab - 1Paul Marty, Michael Twidale, USA |
| 2:00 pm- 4:00 pm Evaluation |
Usability Lab - 2Paul Marty, Michael Twidale, USA |
Crit Rooms
Experienced Web designers and new media managers review real museum Web sites and offer their comments in the "Crit Room". Modeled on the art school critique, Web sites are volunteered in advance by MW2007 attendees who are present to pose the problem and respond.
If you are interested in presenting your site in the Crit Room, or in being a Critic please contact Space is limited, and sites will be selected by the organizers.
| Friday April 13, 2007 | |
| 11:00 am- 12:30 pm Design |
Crit Room - 1Jennifer Trant, Canada |
| 1:30 pm- 3:00 pm Design |
Crit Room - 2Jennifer Trant, Canada |
Best of the Web
Following a community-driven process, a panel makes awards for the Best Museum Web sites of 2007.
| 5:00 pm- 6:30 pm Awards |
Best of the Web Awards |
Demonstrations
See museum Web sites demonstrated by the museum professionals involved in their creation.
| Saturday April 14, 2007 | |
| 8:00 am– 9:30 am Close-Up |
Demonstrations – 1 |
| 9:30 am- 11:00 am Close-Up |
Demonstrations – 2 |
