Web Architecture for Museums

For anyone developing a web site, the basics of information and content architectures must be understood in order to make resources accessible in an easy to use organizational system. The quality of user experience is determined by the ease of locating what one is seeking, or simply finding 'something' which sustains interest. Repeat visits are founded on the success of this experience.

This mini-workshop will address these issues and those particular to the development of a 'museum' web site---a unique balance of content, design, marketing and public access!

Topics will cover page hierarchies, site flow & navigation, multimedia integration, searching, and aspects of branding. Issues concerning the implementation of content management systems and gateway architectures will also be touched upon.

The topics will be complemented by working case studies, as well as references to published materials and current standards.

At the end of the workshop, participants will have gained the following:

• An understanding of the principles of web architecture and its components
• An understanding of information, navigation and design and how they relate to each other

The workshop is designed for non-technical experts and would be useful for anyone wishing to understand more about web development, or for anyone involved in producing content for the web, or anyone in the procurement process for web services.