Competitive. Comparative. Let’s call the whole thing off!

As is or should be the custom, when starting a new project it’s always good to do some research. A comparative analysis if you will. However, for our class we are reading Web ReDesign 2.0 (an excellent resource) and they refer to it as a “competitive analysis.” Tom-ate-o. Tom-auto.

I decided to compare The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, La Musée d’Orsay, La Louvre, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I also looked at The Guggenheim, The Whitney, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Fort Worth Modern, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, but chose to focus on the first four. Two of the four museums are french and in part I thought of them because I had been to them, but I also wanted to see what they are doing differently from the museums in the US and they are definitely bring good and bad things to the table.

First off The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Overall the look and feel of this site is consistent and clean. The information is readable, accessible, and laid out well. I give more details in the “Pro’s and Con’s” below.

I've been close to seeing you in person twice, but no dice.

Pro’s

• access to membership and location info on 1st page
• concise number of main navigation buttons
• chart explaining benefit details
• consistent look/feel/layout of sub-pages
• organized calendar
• front page presents everything before the fold

Con’s

• flash on front page is distracting
• color combination is drab
• “exhibits-events” in navigation as a combination is awkward and inefficient
• logo is bulky and lacking depth/dimension

Next is The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is one of my least favorite sites, out of all the sites that I looked at. The background color of this site change daily? I’m not quite sure. I’ve visited it serveral times of the last two weeks and the background color changes, but not sure why or how often. In addition to that they are dense colors that make the site bulky which does not mesh well with the elegant artwork and logo. There’s a gang of navigation to wade through and it’s not even consistent throughout. There’s a ton of content here, but not enough organization to access it efficiently.  For more “pro’s and con’s” see below.

eggplant background and navagation gone awry...oh my.

Pro’s

• location info, membership, & donation access on 1st page
• calendar organization
• elegant “M” graphic as part of logo

Con’s

• no location info on 1st page
• flat layout with left alignment that doesn’t adjust well to resizing and feels heavy on the left
• overwhelming amount of navigation
• sub-pages inconsistent and missing main navigation

La Musée d’Orsay is the next up to bat. This was my pick of the litter. This is a clean site with concise main navigation (only 3!) and sub navigation to make up the difference. This approach is really effective. The site also utilizes color as an organizational/navigational strategy effectively.  Visits, Events, and Collections sub pages each stick to a color to remind you what category you are in with out being overwhelming or distracting. On so many museum sites there is so much content to be organized that the navigation can get a bit heavy and Musée d’Orsay effectively manages that hurdle. La Musée d’Orsay also uses a type of user experience strategy to accommodate visitors with different needs/priorities, making key information available quickly. Check the rest of my critique below.

I love you!

Pro’s

• simple/efficient main nav
• user type interface for quick access to specific info
• organized calendar
• successful use of texture, color palette, and subtle design/graphic elements giving to feeling of sophistication and hip.
• floor plan is in sub nav… which you don’t think you would need immediately, but is very useful
• successful use of color for navigation/organization

Con’s

• no location info on the first page
• image animation/cycle is a little fast sometimes = distracting
• membership is not very prominent (this is also the case with the Louvre, another french site, so it’s possible that their funding is such that membership is not a priority like in the US)

Now on to La Louvre. For such an elegant and classic museum, their site is a bit of a mess. There’s a wave like animation to cycle through artwork that’s kinda cheezy and an obnoxious, what looks to be a British colonist giving audio commentary about traveling through the site (Noooooooo! annoying!) On the other hand, the site uses the user tailored navigation that I liked so much in La Musée d’Orsay site and an additional user portal to plan trips and collect artwork. I have more pro’s and con’s below.

who's that little man?

Pro’s

• everything before the fold is always good
• user portal “my space” feature
• user type interface

Con’s

• that little man… in addition to being annoying, he takes up valuable real estate on the front page.
• titles of nav are awkward (might be translation)
• background color is unfortunate and bland and does not integrate is images on page well
• no visual calendar

So, some did it better than others, but from my analysis, just because you are representing an institution promoting/displaying painstaking attention to nuanced details in all types of visual mediums, does not mean that your website will follow suit.