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Browsing the web trying to find out how 2.0 developments are touching down in various areas, I stumbled upon the lovely lucid website of Whitechapel Gallery. What I like about this site, apart from its modest and minimal design, is that it shows the visitor right away what happens here, and what you can find on the site and in the gallery.
But, after closer examination, I have yet to discover what Whitechapel exactly is (I have been there, so I know what it is; just for sake of the argument, bear with me). I mean, I see that next to exhibitions - which you would expect in a gallery - there are talks & events, films, poetry, music, special events (not just normal events, but special events), a bar, a shop and so much more. Nowhere one simple line that states the identity of this gallery. Why do I want that? Take Palais de Tokyo for instance; I like their tagline: site de création contemporaine. To me that makes (some) sense. Or Tate Modern; if you go to Tate Online you learn immediately what goes on there: British and International Modern and Contemporary Art.
Let’s check a different website: Amazon.com. Aha! Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & More. CNET? Technology Product Reviews, Price Comparisons, Tech Video, and More. The New York Times? Breaking News, World News & Multimedia (Multimedia? Interesting line up). Google? … ehm, search? For what? Information? I get it. (Could it be so that someone who is not familiar with the Internet, would not understand Google at first sight? Same goes for Yahoo, although the portal function is much more clear than the stand-alone search function. I don’t think so; humans have evolved to become googlers, craving for information. It’s sheer logic that explains the simplicity of the search engine interface.)
And what was I getting at? Probably identity, communication and navigation. If someone lands on your site, that person should be able to recognize what it is he is looking at, and where to go from there, without too much hassle. With the Long Tail in mind, more and more people will accidentally come across museum sites through search. If museums do get such interested visitors (take an obscure music aficionado, looking for sound artist Ryoji Ikeda and finding his 2006 performance on Tate Online), they’d better accommodate them and show them around, handing them options to elaborate on their query. Until then, they don’t care they are in that specific museum, all they want is answers to their queries. But they might start caring if the museum site provides the answers, and thus a relationship can be built.
And that is something the Whitechapel Gallery has done well, to have a good overview of what’s there. That obscure music aficionado could visit this site through googling music magazine The Wire, which happens to be Whitechapel’s media partner in its music series. If he gets to that page, he immediately sees in the top more (related) categories.
Luckily most museums do seem to unveil their identity at the index page. But after that the masquerade begins.
(One more thing: I think it also makes you more visible in search engines, which improves your ranking.)
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Posted by Juha van 't Zelfde