New MoMA website
The new MoMA website launches on Friday, it’s got a ton of content and while there are a few minor annoyances, there’s a ton that I’m impressed with. I’ve been spending a good chunk of the last hour looking at the preview site at http://preview.moma.org (nice that the preview’s been publicly available).
From Thursday’s NY Times:
“MoMA’s new site, which makes its debut on Friday, is an almost complete reconstruction of how the museum presents itself online. It features livelier images from its collection and exhibitions, increased use of video and the new interactive calendars and maps. But more important, the museum wants the site to transform how the public interacts with an institution that can sometimes seem forbidding and monolithic.”
So, a few key things to look at: * Perspectives (part of the bottom orange nav). Eight different visitor profiles to choose from that the site then keeps offering little extra tidbits for.
The Calendar. Easy to read and use. The exhibition calendar is done as a timeline with today clearly marked. It works pretty well.
The Collection. Pretty much everything looks to be there, but what I really liked were the filtering tools which allowed for really complex querying and even the use of art terms.
Multimedia. A bunch of stuff that they’ve produced and it looks like a handful of their interactives.
MoMA Voices. The museum’s blog.
Communities. All of the usual social media bits — flickr, youtube, etc. Even better, they make use of images from flickr throughout the site. I love that they’re leveraging the love.
About. It’s not so much the content but the nav for it. The major thematic areas are listed along the bottom — Visit, Explore, Etc. But the About link is a tiny one in the upper right. It’s a good distinction and probably right for the average user who’s probably looking for content not so much about the museum itself.
Visitor Information link at the bottom of each page. Six languages to choose from that all lead to the quick snapshot of what you need to know to visit. Spot on.
The Share widget in the upper right (the three connected circles). On any page, share it via email, text, facebook, twitter, etc.
I also love that as you go through the site it’s constantly teasing itself. On almost every page, there are featured objects from the collection with links to learn more or make it part of your own personal collection of stuff. They’re really opening themselves up in a nice elegant way that’s not at all pushy.
My couple of disappointments? Not many yet:
Terms and Conditions. No creative commons licensing. They stick with traditional copyright although they openly allow photography in the collection galleries. I’m surprised that they have a DMCA notice on the site.
No tagging of artwork. Given everything else, I’m surprised that Allegra and her team didn’t incorporate it for visitors, especially if they’re doing ‘my collections.’
The persistent nav at the bottom often obscures some content for me, especially on the smaller screen of my laptop. There are times I didn’t realize that there was content further down the web page.
So, overall it feels engaging, deep, thorough, and appealing to me even if I’m not in town to visit. It certainly leaves me wanting to come back again.