Arts

by Meghan Hines, Glenn Bailey Jr., Aindreela Dutt, Natalie Garrett, Allison Swindell

Art museums are striving to maintain their relevance in an increasingly digital age. Low-to-no-cost user-centered interactive technologies such as blogs, podcasts and streaming media are now finally being adopted by art museums as tools to connect with a younger, more tech-savvy patron base. In 2004, the Smithsonian-affiliated Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. recognized the need for a more engaging web presence and set out to redesign its website. Given their goals of stronger brand identity, increased page views and development of online audience participation, this paper examines Hirshhorn’s current technology initiatives and evaluates the web 2.0-inspired site redesign. Functionality and overall usability of the site, the availability of robust, original content, authentic real-time user interaction and the generation of success metrics are key criteria by which both the Hirshhorn case and any other user-focused re-designs are to be judged.

Published In: Volume 5, Issue 2: — April 4, 2008