2. 2012 Best of the Web Awards
Best of the Web Awards
3. Best of the Web Awards
Douglas Hegley
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Welcome and Introduction
4. Best of the Web Awards
Co-Chairs
• Douglas Hegley, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
• Kajsa Hartig, Nordiska Museet, Sweden
Panelists
• Matthew Andress, North Carolina State University, USA
• Steven Beasley, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, USA
• Titus Bicknell, Discovery Communications, USA
• Luigina Ciolfi, University of Limerick, Ireland
• Brad Larson, Brad Larson Media, Inc., USA
• Pepijn Lemmens, Netherlands Architecture Institute, The Netherlands
• Maurizio Ortolani, National Arts Centre, Canada
• Robin White Owen, MediaCombo, Inc., USA
• Jon Pratty, Arts Council England, UK
• Conxa Roda, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), Spain
• Koven Smith, Denver Art Museum, USA
• Corey Timpson, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Canada
BoW Panel
5. Best of the Web Awards
This is a Celebration
Community
• Aspirations
• Online excellence
Congratulate the winners, learn from their work, but then
make it your priority to take us even farther next year
6. Best of the Web Awards
Best of the Web: Process
Sites are nominated by the community in an open call
Nominated sites are assigned to members of the panel
•All Judges are volunteers
• No conflicts of interest
•All sites are explored in-depth, tested, reviewed/rated
7. Best of the Web Awards
Process, continued
Disagreements are expressed and debated
Every site is evaluated in the context of the other sites nominated
Finalists rise to the top, then are re-evaluated to decide winners
Together, the panel selects winners in each category and overall
8. Best of the Web Awards
Recognizing Excellence
A snapshot of recent work that has caught our attention
Not every nominated site can win (obviously)
Competition drives innovation and change
Awards provide a hearty “Well done!”
Be inspired!
9. Best of the Web Awards
Introducing my co-presenter
Koven Smith, Denver Art Museum
We represent all of the judges
11. Best of the Web Awards
Category:
Audio / Visual / Podcast
12. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•use narrative, audio, or video to share museum content
•content is original, appropriate, perhaps evocative
•effective use of sound, video, images
And the winner is …
Audio / Visual / Podcast
13. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
The Vlog Project
Institution: Whitney Museum of American Art
Designer: Name
http://whitney.org/Vlogs
Audio / Visual / Podcast – WINNER
15. “ … successful because the interpreters are
thoroughly knowledgeable and seem
quite passionate about their subjects …”
“well done, engaging and
informative”
16. “The look and feel is completely
adequate to the task but not
aesthetically outstanding”
“Could improve interactivity and
functionalities, such as a comment option,
to make it more participatory”
17. Best of the Web Awards
The Vlog Project
Congratulations
Audio / Visual / Podcast – WINNER
19. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•teach a specific audience on a particular subject
•present material in an effective and relevant manner
•for schools, teachers, and students of any age
•support lifelong learning activities
•easily-identified target audience, clear pedagogical strategy
First, we have an honorable mention …
Education
20. Best of the Web Awards
Honorable Mention:
Wondermind
Institution: Tate
Designers: Tate, Preloaded, Martin Percy, supported by
the Wellcome Trust
http://wondermind.tate.org.uk/
Education – Honorable Mention
22. “I like the contextual messages displayed while
the main window loaded … nice way of
learning when I least expected it”
23. “I had initial trouble getting oriented to the goals of the
site. Perhaps the (excellent) introductory
video could be auto-loaded, or made more prominent”
24. Best of the Web Awards
Wondermind
Congratulations
Education – Honorable Mention
25. Best of the Web Awards
Education
And the winner is …
26. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
Beyond the Chalkboard
Institution: Boston Children‟s Museum
Designer: Almighty
http://www.beyondthechalkboard.com/
Education – WINNER
27. “This site is fantastic! Beautifully designed,
well executed, and filled to the brim
with fascinating activities”
“The site makes a very tight
connection with its audience, and
provides resources for after-school
activities that are spot on target”
28. “The comments regarding the activities are really
positive, which validates that the content actually
worked in the classroom, at home, or elsewhere”
“The site goes further, suggesting an integrative process
– make it matter, make it happen, make it click, make it better”
29. “The interface was less successful for me. I found the
design contemporary and hip, but the color contrast
caused me to have to squint at the screen at times. It
might be a good idea to add an accessibility
button or some alternative style sheets”
30. Best of the Web Awards
Beyond the Chalkboard
Congratulations
Education – WINNER
32. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•present and interpret museum collections and themes
•provide a rich and meaningful digital experience
•complement physical exhibitions or provide digital experience
•innovative, imaginative, can be “born digital” collections
•engage different categories of ‘visitors’
And the winner is …
Exhibition
33. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
Split Second
Institution: Brooklyn Museum
Designer: In-house
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/splitsecond/
Exhibition – WINNER
34. “ … truly innovative!”
“The results were used to curate a physical
exhibition of paintings at the Museum, and the
findings were presented in the galleries”
35. “Great idea, well executed, with lots of data
left behind for visitors to play with that still
encourages users to explore a fairly decent
catalog online. Win!
“Another brilliant idea from the
Brooklyn Museum. Can‟t quite grasp
*why* people would participate, the
„what‟s in it for me‟ question”
36. “As with most Brooklyn Museum
web/app activities, the interface is bare
bones and functional – not a lot of
graphic design to speak of.”
37. Best of the Web Awards
Split Second
Congratulations
Exhibition – WINNER
38. Best of the Web Awards
Category:
Innovative / Experimental
39. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•creative, new, innovative uses of the web
•demonstrate originality and potential for development
•apply new web concepts to museum goals
•experimental and creative uses of emerging technology
And the winner is …
Innovative / Experimental
40. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
Walker Art Center Website
Institution: Walker Art Center
Designer: In-house
http://www.walkerart.org/
Innovative / Experimental – WINNER
41. “… really cool … welcoming other voices
in, being open to
provocation, allowing criticism and
comment by people who may not even be
professional art critics.”
42. “Bonus points for thinking outside of their
silo and including art news from other museum‟s
communications departments”
“Notice how seamlessly and
consistently the different content feeds are
shown visually. That‟s really hard to do”
43. “Accessibility-wise, there are some
issues with alt-tags and anchors, some
missing page tags and descriptions caused
fails. They can work on that though.”
“ (perhaps) … allow the Editor to
have a backchannel for
feedback and comment about the
site itself (and the process) … “
44. Best of the Web Awards
Walker Art Center
Congratulations
Innovative / Experimental – WINNER
46. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•long-term commitment to excellent online presence
•year-over-year, these sites deliver quality and serve
communities
•continued growth in available resources
•sustained use and engagement by site visitors
•alignment with vision and strategy of the institution
And the winner is …
Long-lived
47. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
National Galleries of Scotland Website
Institution: National Galleries of Scotland
Designer: Keepthinking (London)
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/
Long-lived – WINNER
53. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•sites or apps created to function best on a mobile device
•accessible on multiple platforms
•use of mobile interaction possibilities
•creative ways of presenting content
•ease of use for both experienced and novice users
First, we have an Honorable Mention …
Mobile
54. Best of the Web Awards
Honorable Mention:
MuseumApp
Institution: Amsterdam Museum
Designers: 7scenes, Waag Society and
Amsterdam Museum
http://www.museumapp.nl/home.php?language=en
Mobile – Honorable Mention
55. “The idea of a multi-institutional
app is terrific and the design is clean and
to the point”
56. “Users can comment on the content of
each tour stop, rate and share them
with others … a very good feature”
57. “I‟ve already bought the app, so why do I
need to login? And why a unique login?
Perhaps the next version could use OAuth or a
similar method.”
58. Best of the Web Awards
MuseumApp
Congratulations
Mobile – Honorable Mention
59. Best of the Web Awards
Mobile
And the winner is …
60. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
ArtClix
Institution: High Museum of Art
Designer: Second Story Interactive Studios
http://www.high.org/moma.aspx#/Picasso-to-Warhol/artclix
Mobile – WINNER
61. “This app gets to the heart of
what visitors want to do – snap
their own photos of the art, capture their
own experience, and then share with
friends”
62. “ … try out the image recognition
software … it works really well”
63. “Adding a search function could reduce
potential frustration, users would not need to
scroll and scroll to find an artist (if they are not
onsite and using the image recognition
capability)”
64. Best of the Web Awards
ArtClix
Congratulations
Mobile – WINNER
65. Best of the Web Awards
Category:
Museum Professional
66. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•serve museum professionals and their requirements
•administration, exhibitions, education, PR, registration,
collections management, development
•contribute to institution, or to museum profession as a whole
•provide software, guidelines, templates and packages for
museum professionals
And the winner is …
Museum Professional
67. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
Museum Analytics
Designer: INTK (The Netherlands)
http://www.museum-analytics.org/
Museum Professional – WINNER
68. “ … great because it points the way toward
transparency, toward the use of open
audience benchmarking data, toward a more
instantaneous appraisal of statistical tracking”
69. “ … this new tool is addressing a very
concrete need for museum professionals”
“This is a very nice idea, to aid the
monitoring of social media activity
around heritage institutions”
70. “Perhaps they could add a statement about the
limits of the conclusions that can be drawn.
Even with this said, it‟s a fascinating site all the
same.”
“As a research tool into comparative statistics, the
problem is that the overall sample of museums is
incomplete. Of course, it could grow over time.”
71. Best of the Web Awards
Museum Analytics
Congratulations
Museum Professional – WINNER
72. Best of the Web Awards
Category:
Research / Online Collection
73. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•support research on museum collections
•provide resources for researchers from any discipline
•content is accurate, deep, consistent, current
•provide extensive links and references to other related
resources and sites
•creative use of APIs, mashups, integrations of multiple sources
First, we have an Honorable Mention …
Research / Online Collection
74. Best of the Web Awards
Honorable Mention:
Museum Metadata Exchange
Institution: Powerhouse Museum
Designer: In-house
http://museumex.org/
Research / Online Collection – Honorable Mention
75. “A monumental task, and overall a very useful
mashup. Powerhouse‟s staff is taking the
spaghetti model out of collection
recollection and enabling researchers to
uncover forgotten resources”
76. “I think we’ll see more sites
like this – if funds allow – building
the infrastructure to link digital public
spaces together”
“It‟s not glamorous or very flashy, but
that‟s the nature of the site: putting
digital infrastructure in place
so that others can make use of it”
77. “The platform could use further
development … more interaction, sharing,
commenting, more visual presentation tools such as
maps or timelines”
78. Best of the Web Awards
Museum Metadata Exchange
Congratulations
Research / Online Collection – Honorable Mention
79. Best of the Web Awards
Research / Online Collection
And the winner is …
80. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
Collections at the Met
Institution: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Designer: In-house and Cogapp
http://metmuseum.org/collections
Research / Online Collection – WINNER
81. “A superb addition to the Met‟s web offering, the new
Collections section is full of surprises and deep, deep
content that one can just get lost in”
82. “I want to spend hours browsing
this collection online”
“The Who, What, When, Where
structure is inherently understood with me,
and I think this is stellar implementation of
collection browsing”
83. “The look feels a bit old-fashioned
and authoritative … does it need
to look subdued and grey? Some
added color would only
increase the elegance”
84. Best of the Web Awards
Collections at the Met
Congratulations
Research / Online Collection – WINNER
86. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•use social media to engage & involve communities
•coordinated strategy that evolves based on user needs
•maintain voice and identity across platforms
•robust online participation
And the winner is …
Social Media
87. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
Kermadec Expedition Blog
Institution: Auckland Museum
Designer: Zest Media LTD
http://kermadec.aucklandmuseum.com/
Social Media – WINNER
88. “Very nicely produced … capitalizes on
the inherent interest in this grand adventure”
89. “Brings the progress and research to the audience
directly and almost in real time. Blog posts, videos,
and an agile Q & A interaction provided a
compelling and engaging chronicle of the
expedition”
90. “Would have been helpful for me
to have a listing of blog posts by
category. For example, “New
Discoveries”, “Daily Life Onboard”,
etc. Would make the site more
browsable, especially now that the
expedition is over”
91. Best of the Web Awards
Kermadec Expedition Blog
Congratulations
Social Media – WINNER
93. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•created in-house or with volunteer effort
•mounted by small institutions (5 for fewer professional staff)
•created with very limited budgets (sometimes no budget)
And the winner is …
Small
94. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
It‟s Elemental
Institution: Chemical Heritage Foundation
Designer: The Berndt Group
http://www.chemheritage.org/ElementalVideos
Small – WINNER
95. “Good work on a low budget!”
“… it‟s student work, and there
is a lot of humor and
creativity in evidence”
96. “Oh my … is this a good site, or a site that
is so bad that it’s good?”
97. “… some of the videos are so
bookish and nerdy that I‟m
rooting for the heroic creators (to
survive high school!) …”
“I‟d like to have been able to browse to the more
notable entries, and/or quickly get to the videos where
it‟s obvious that the students had fun”
98. Best of the Web Awards
It‟s Elemental
Congratulations
Small – WINNER
99. Best of the Web Awards
Category:
People’s Choice
100. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•each registrant at http://conference.archimuse.com may cast
one vote
And the winner is …
People’s Choice
101. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
Museum Analytics
Designer: INTK (The Netherlands)
http://www.museum-analytics.org/
People‟s Choice – WINNER
102. “… opens the door to audience tracking
and content performance in a new way”
103. Best of the Web Awards
Museum Analytics
Congratulations
People’s Choice – WINNER
104. Best of the Web Awards
Category:
BEST OVERALL
105. Best of the Web Awards
Characteristics include:
•together, the Panel chooses the "Best of the Web"
•recognizes the outstanding nature of a site and its contribution
•considerations: quality of content, ease of use, accessibility,
stability
•sites are not nominated for Best Overall, the choice is made by
the Panel from among the sites nominated in all categories
And the winner is …
Overall
106. Best of the Web Awards
Winner:
Walker Art Center Website
Institution: Walker Art Center
Designer: In-house
http://www.walkerart.org/
Best Overall – WINNER
107. “This points to a new model … getting
away from the ‘silo-ization’ and
myopia of your institution … a new
way for museums to excel”
“… a real case of by the
community for the community”
“OMG! They built this in-house!”
108. Best of the Web Awards
Walker Art Center
Congratulations
Best Overall – WINNER
109. Best of the Web Awards
For Next Year…
Best of the Web
– we want to reflect the CURRENT and BEST online presence
• Do we have the right categories?
• Do we have the right criteria?
• Is the process effective and appropriate?
We’d love to hear your suggestions
110. Best of the Web Awards
Challenges, revisited
Corey Timpson, Canadian Museum of Human Rights
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118. Best of the Web Awards
Congratulations
To all of the nominees, finalists,
And award winners!
Everyone: keep creating, keep innovating, and
submit more great sites next year!