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Museum of Antiquities

ETAD 874 Final Design Report

April 3, 2017

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Overview of Goals

The primary purpose of the ETAD 874 project is to increase the use and accessibility of the Museum of Antiquities, focusing on 3 specific goals:

A redesigned Museum website to improve interactivity, navigation, layout and content organization based on the look of well-designed museum websites suggested by Dr. Harvey.
Restructuring the MoA’s collections pages to allow for easy navigation and searches to locate what learners need when they want to access specific information.
Integration of a more regularly used social media presence to promote exhibits, events and programming options available through the MoA.

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Site Walkthrough

The site we will be looking at can be found here:

http://aswebdev.usask.ca:8034/etad/index.php

The username is: website

The password is: website

We will step through the scripted route together, stopping as we need to clarify decisions or to answer questions.

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MoA’s Strategic Plan Regarding Social Media

Ongoing Goals:

2. To reach and maintain a high public profile within the University and broader community through various communications and outreach programs.

3. To continue to grow as an important academic and educational resource for the students, faculty and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and the wider community of Saskatoon and the province of Saskatchewan through the ongoing development and improvement of the Museum’s various programs.

Core Strategic Goals for 2016-2019:

1. Increase visibility and multicultural connectedness of the Museum of Antiquities within the local community and the world through programming, social media and increased advertising.

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Benefits of Social Media

Over the last decade the use of social media has become an important, if not essential, way for businesses and organizations to advertise their goods and services in an increasingly online world. There are many potential benefits that a regularly updated social media presence can offer a museum.

Low Cost
Global Accessibility
Connection to Audience
Meaningful Engagement
Increased Exposure
Low Risk

(Fletcher & Lee, 2012)

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Social Media Audit for MoA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/usaskantiquities

Most used/popular social media platform (759 followers, 777 likes)
General Information: Phone link, hours of operation, website link, email, map
Regular posts (March 21st): Promotional, links to external sites, educational videos, showcasing pieces, questions
276 Timeline photos, 35 mobile photos, 1 album, 8 videos
360 photo of museum post was most popular post
Five Reviews

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MofAntiquities

835 tweets, 214 Following, 717 followers, 135 likes
Following: UofS Colleges, Museums, Trudeau, Maclean Magazine, Restaurants
Last tweet: Feb 18: Closed over the weekend

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mofantiquities/

53 posts, 89 followers, 62 following, ‘no live stories’
Last post: 3 weeks ago

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Successful Social Media Strategies

Set Goals: SMART framework

Ex: By the end of 2017, the MOA will commit to posting a minimum of three times per week on Facebook by following the effective posting criteria.

Target Audience

Diverse audiences
Keep audience in mind when posting

Key Elements of Social Media:

Ease of navigation
Branding
Number of followers
Tone of comments

Types of Social Media Posts

Arlene ( include examples from other museums)

Set Goals: In order for a museum to gauge if their social media plan is successful, goals need to be set. These goals need to match the strategic plan of the museum and must be both measurable and attainable. In many instances, museums use Facebook Analytics, Google Analytics and Google Alerts as measurement tools.

Target Audience:

To be successful with social media usage a museum must know their audience. Once the audience has been established and agreed upon, the strategies for a variety of different posts can be tailored to meet the its needs. Museum audiences audiences vary which means the type of posts used on social media should vary as well.

Elements of Social media:

Ease of navigation: Using Twitter and Facebook were easy for audiences to use because the popularity of these platforms meant that most people were familiar with them.
Branding: Consistently using the same style guides, logos and fonts created a visual connection to the museum.
Number of followers: As a measurement tool, museums recorded the number of followers they had on their social media sites and regularly revisited these numbers to see if they were increasing or decreasing. Results would dictate future social media posts.
Tone of comments: The “voice” that was used to post on social media is important. Generally, the “voice” of social media posts vary from humourous, questioning, informative, etc. It was only the voice of blogs that would remain consistent. Blogs are often used as a scholarly voice.
Type of Social Media Posts:

promotional
events
reminders
questions like “What is the funniest thing that happened at our visit?”
post a photo and ask for possible captions/ slogans
live videos of museum artifacts
post first line of a poem and ask the audience to add lines
contests and competitions
trivia questions
invite audience to post videos and photos of their visit
post external links that connect with theme of museum

Using an App such as Buffer will help to more efficiently post on all platforms

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Benefits Of a Blog

Connect to audience
Increase interactivity
Searchable
Scholarly voice

Technology has allowed museums to expand their online interactivity beyond basic advertising. Implementing and maintaining a blog is an excellent example of how a museum can reach out to their audience and create a connection beyond the four walls of their physical museum space.

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Successful Blog Strategies

Set goals: SMART framework
Content Strategy: blog’s purpose
Content Production: audience in mind
Audience Development

Bomboy ( 2014)

To have a successful blog, decisions need to be made about what its purpose is, who will be the writer and who can be trusted to ensure that the quality of posts match the integrity and branding of the museum.

Arlene: Include examples from other blogs

Set Goals: By the of 2017, the MOA will appoint a scholar to create a regular blog posts format that will be posted minimum of once per month that will include successful blog strategies.

Content Strategy:To have a successful blog, decisions need to be made about what its purpose is, who will be the writer and who can be trusted to ensure that the quality of posts match the integrity and branding of the museum.

Content Production: ensure that the content of the blog posts are written with them in mind. Once the audience has been identified, it is important to find out when readers read museum posts, how long they take to read the posts and why the readers are interested in this blog.

Audience Development; Blogs that are updated regularly appear higher on the list of search engines. This feature alone makes them worthwhile and helps to expand a museum's audience and create interactivity. The tone of the post should be written with a natural scholarly voice knowing that the first 500 words appear in a Google search. This feature alone allows for richer content opportunities than other social media tools because the length of the content can be more. ( Bomboy research)

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Social Media Recommendations

General Recommendations:

Set goals for each of social media platforms
Set purpose and criteria for the different social media platforms
Use student volunteer or summer student

Facebook:

Incorporate two-way communication strategies
Use Facebook Live to broadcast
Continue to post often to keep audience engaged
Include 360 photos when possible

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Social Media Recommendations

Twitter:

Follow other museums, schools, universities, archaeologists and other relevant people and organizations
More frequent posts that offer a variety of purposes similar to Facebook
Share external links in posts as these attract interest
Include 360 photos and videos
Read, retweet or like the profiles that are being followed by the museum
Encourage volunteers and other MOA staff to share and retweet the MOA profile

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Other Social Media Considerations

Instagram

Snapchat

Buffer

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Suggestions for Usability Testing

A link to the feedback form has been added to the footer section of the newly-launched prototype website.
Test users can be directed to this link and complete the short online survey right within the MoA website.
Soliciting feedback should take place in phases to collect and analyze data from several sources (Roblyer, 2015).
Time is needed between each phase for revisions using data-driven decision making on the look and flow of the website to improve usability.

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Suggestions for Usability Testing

We recommend soliciting feedback from a range of representative users by asking directly for participation.

volunteer students
MoA staff members
partner members (such as Arts and Science faculty) could provide a series of expert or peer reviews
student groups
members of the public to visit the site and take the short survey
sharing a link via social media

Conducting these usability tests and analyzing the results are beyond the scope of the project for ETAD 874; however, we believe this offers a flexible method for soliciting feedback. When the time comes to analyze results, the link to the feedback form (or the form itself) can be easily removed from the site. The most common complaints or areas of expressed user frustration can be compiled into suggestions for improvement by MoA staff, and in collaboration with IT staff members solutions to those issues can be designed.

The volunteer students and MoA staff members can provide good individual reviews because they are most familiar with what the MoA has to offer. The other groups can offer suggestions of areas of the website that relate to their areas of interest.

When the data is collected from each group, an evaluation and analysis of the data collected occurs to identify revision needs. Then the next group is collected and analyzed. (Roblyer, 2015)

There is a possibility of conflicting suggestions from user feedback. The challenge to designers is to select revisions based on the goals of the MoA.

Individual Reviewers → see above; Can see if there are common issues or problems the users have; issues with directions/explanations;

Expert Reviewers → Info on obvious errors, language mechanics and clarity. Also looking for agreement between experts on suggestions

Group Reviewers → Problems with individual items; criteria; entry skills; combinations of problems; sequences/placement

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Recommendations for the Future

Database integration

Continue to work towards completing this goal
Consider a dedicated student hire to develop the necessary IT capabilities

Social Media Strategic Planning

See document for a full list of recommendations

Summer student and Student Volunteer Roles

Apply student labour in website maintenance through Cascade and in social media management

Educational Resources and Programming

Current offerings in need of expansion / refreshing
A great area for future student hires or groups (ETAD 874) to work on

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Recommendations for the Future

5. Virtual and Audio Tours

Offered by many museums to improve web presence, accessibility, and to offer staff-independent ways to explore and enjoy the collection
Production would be time-intensive; potentially another good student project idea

6. Donations and Member Benefits

Need to define what being a “Friend of the Museum” entails
Coordinate with U of S financial or donor relations services to implement payment and donation options

7. Usability Testing (see document)

See document for recommendations we hope offer an attainable method to assess and improve your new website

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Thanks & Acknowledgements

This course has taught us how to work with others regardless of proximity which is real in working places today.
This course has also helped us to learn the ID processes, even much better.
We cannot underestimate the values we have learned in working with a client.
Thank you Tracene for allowing us a platform to practice and perfect ID with MOA.
Thank you to Marguerite for your assistance and directions on what and whom to contact and conducting informative workshops plus providing us with documents to enlighten us