Monday, November 5, 2007

www.menil.org

Why not take a look at the site of one of my favorite museums? Houston's own Menil Collection.

Intended Audience: People interested in the visual arts, primarily modern painting but extending to African and Ancient Greek sculpture, with other cultures and periods represented as well. The surrealism gallery at the Menil is impeccible. People looking to plan a visit to the Menil, or who just want to learn more about it, could get a lot out of this site if it wasn't as poorly designed.

Usefulness of Content: All of the basics for a museums website are represented. You've got your current exhibitions, complete with ranges of dates. An overview of the permenant collections is also provided, divided by movement/time period. Finally, and most important, is the visitor's information section. People have to know when the Menil is open and how to get there, after all! The site is a good resource of information, it just needs better organization.

Consitency of Design: This is where the Menil's site suffers the most. The site opens on a flash intro, which brings you to a homepage dividing the site into five sections. Clicking on any one of these options, however, changes the structure and layout of the site yet again, moving the selections to the left side of the page. This last incarnation is the best idea for the site, but to get to it you have to move through a relatively pointless "guide" page that doesn't really serve a purpose.

Ease of Use: Sort of bad too. Hovering the cursor on the nav links on the side of the page brings up faux links that can't be clicked. To get to these subsections, you have to click on the nav links. After that, the other options will appear... on the upper central portion of the site, rather than where they appeared before. It's needlessly confusing and counterintuitive. I like the museum, but they could use a new website.

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