Research on 'Quality' in Online Experiences for Museum Users

Measuring Quality of Existing Online Museum Products in the Virtual Museum Portal

In-Depth Site Analysis for a Sample of Five VMC Products

Yukon Photographers

Figure 10: Yukon

Subject:
The site features historical photographs taken just before, during, and after the gold rush. Describes the types of cameras that commercial photographers and amateurs used during that time, how negatives were printed, and popular forms of photographs.

Producer, Creators, Funders:
Yukon Heritage Branch with a grant from the Northern Research Institute, Yukon College, and funding from the Canada-Yukon Bilateral Agreement.

Quality of User Experience

• A content-driven, informative site.
• Image collages surround each photographer's portrait.
• The home page is text driven (i.e., 225 words of text in introduction).

Potential for User Engagement

• Navigation could be more intuitive. Users must scroll to bottom to view navigation links on all pages except home page.
• Integration of communication devices would be beneficial as pages are either dominated by text or feature images with little explanation.

Engagement Factor vs. Engagement Experience

• The longest visits are in the summer, contrasted to most other VMC Virtual Exhibits.
• Although more users visit the site during the school year, they tend to stay longer in the summer.

Factors that Contributed to Higher Quality in Online User Experiences

• Yukon youth and local expertise enabled the local community to build the capacity for Web development, allowing them to build flexibility in their design. This made it possible to make revisions easily.
• The Museums Advisor at the Government of Yukon Heritage Branch and his team have learned from their Virtual Exhibit, user statistics, and Feedback messages how to create, develop, and produce more engaging and interactive Web sites.
• Emotionally powerful stories invite users to think about content and images on the site, which are open to different interpretations, ongoing debates, and information sharing.
• The Yukon site appeals to 'niche' markets and listservs help to promote and market the Virtual Exhibits. Feedback messages indicate that this site (along with Explore Hershel Island!) help users connect to their own personal stories, memories, and associations related to living in or visiting the Yukon.
• Some users have suggested corrections about information and identification of online photographs. Others have reported problems with navigation, font size, and suggestions to improve the site's quiz.

Framework for Creation, Development, and Production

In 2001, CHIN commissioned Virtual Exhibits where there were already great ideas with themes related to humanities, history, ethnology, and natural sciences. It was possible to develop Yukon Photographers at a low developmental cost, thanks to existing research on photographers of the Gold Rush. The project manager helped with VMC technical specifications, meeting deadlines, designing logos, answering questions, and helping with translations of bilingual or trilingual products.

Strategies for Engaging Online User

The development team for Yukon Photographers felt that a combination of rich content and images are engaging and different than users' experiences reading a book or visiting a museum. Users read through, do research, look at the images in their area of interest, and some print out material. From an educational standpoint, schools and students both inside and outside of the Yukon are using the site. The site is developed in 2 language versions (English and French).

Successes

An important success for the Yukon group is that none of the money for this, or the Heritage Branch's other Virtual Exhibits, such as Explore Herschel Island!, was used to contract people outside of the Yukon; rather teams were brought together with people who live in the Yukon. As a result, the larger population sees that these products have been developing in the Yukon and that there are teams in the Yukon that can produce Virtual Exhibits that 'stand along side' other VMC products.

From a tourism standpoint, the Government of Yukon Heritage Branch had been focusing on German tourists, and thought the French in Canada and in Europe were not that interested in the Yukon. Responses to the Web site by French users indicate that their assumptions were incorrect.

There are unique stories and tales, which cover a long time range and are cross-cultural. The site is not technologically flashy but its strength and simplicity allows the stunning images to speak for themselves. Yukon Photographers has extremely old film footage from the early part of the century, which was digitized using QuickTime and incorporated into a special section, offering different experiences to a range of audiences.

Use of Learning

The team approach within the Yukon group has enabled them to do more experimenting and be more willing to take a risk. They have built curriculum units that fit the British Columbia / Yukon curriculum and the Western Canadian protocol, which are being promoted to teachers by a Resource person with Yukon's Department of Education.

Feedback Messages

Patterns in overall messages during 2002: (3rd highest number of messages in the sample)

• Very positive messages, particularly about the photographs.
• Users' own very personal stories, memories, and associations.
• Request for a copy of online footage.
• Corrections about information and identification of photographs.
• Problems with navigation and font size.