There is a basic structure I expect when I visit a museum’s website. For example, I always look for hours and admission details before I first visit a museum on its website. So I’ve come to expect the keyword “visit” in the main menu as well as other keywords such as “collection” or “education”.

MOCA’s website is simple and to the point, that’s what I like most about it. It follows this simple structure that I’ve come to expect. The homepage only displays the information which is more important to those who are part of the community: news, events, membership, rss feed, email subscription form and a slide show with museum shots. The main menu at the top announces the other parts of the site which you can explore. Two other things I enjoy are the pun on the museum’s acronym and the mocha colors chosen for the design, and the small menu on the right-hand side of each section which contains a twitter widget, a small email subscription for and a button to share on Facebook. I think those are all essential in order to get the word out about them, especially since they are a new museum.

Unfortunately, most museums just don’t know how to keep it simple. They know the average site visitor will only click on a link or two, so they try to lure them in by displaying too much information on the homepage. This is especially attractive to do for large museums since they have so much they want to share with the visitors. The MoMA website might be the best example of what not to do on a homepage. They display all the information in what feels like a very chaotic way to me (even though their website is similar to their gallery structure in that sense). The Museum of Jewish Heritage website does a little bit of that as well, but there is a more rigid structure to their website in comparison to MoMA’s.

Another example of trying to include too much information in one website is the National Museum of the American Indian website. For each item on their main menu (e.g. visitor information, exhibitions, events) there is a submenu which separates into the museum in Washington and the museum in New York. I think it would be easier to navigate by just having separate sites for each museum at the two locations.

However, I do expect that the structure of website for an art museum would be different than that of a cultural or ethnic museum. A good example of this difference is the Asia Society website. I’m not a big fan of their website as I think they need to work a little more on the user experience. For example, if you click on the “visit” link, it displays the following text: “Click here for location, directions, hours, and other information on visiting Asia Society and Museum, in New York City.” I would prefer to get the actual information on that link, rather than another link to the information. Still, I think they do a good job at establishing a community. They have two main menus: one contains the main information about the museum and the other contains potential useful and interesting information about current topics from all through-out Asia.

Another website I looked at was that of Magnum Photos. In comparison with the MOCA website, Magnum Photo’s website has a less rigid structure. It has three main menus and one submenu, which is in my opinion way too much. There’s a lot of repeated information throughout the site, and I think just by organizing the information better they could solve that problem.