Museum Techmuse

Winning “Best Museum Website”

We were delighted to hear this week that our work developing Conservation Central for Smithsonian’s National Zoo was awarded “Best Overall Museum Website” at Museums and the Web 2004, the prestigious international forum for reviewing the state of the Web in arts, culture, and heritage.

From the judges: “Conservation Central is a middle school science teacher's dream. This is an extremely thorough resource for standards-based learning about conservation and habitats. The activities are well-balanced with both high-tech, extensive Flash interactives and low-tech, simple printout family learning activities.”

And: “thoughtful execution...the next best thing to going to the Zoo.”

Obviously, it feels good to be recognized for work that we have taken to heart, building connections from the Zoo to families and schools. The site is extensive, with eight Flash-based interactives, a downloadable curriculum, and family learning activities. In the end, I think success was largely due to this variety of activities, from high tech to low – each designed to maximize that particular media’s connection to current museum learning theory.

Would Farmer Hoggett like this Website?

One of our favorite movies is Babe, a wonderful tale of a young pig who wants to become a sheepdog, and of the farmer who gains a quiet confidence in the pig.

There’s a scene in which Farmer Hoggett is left to himself for the weekend (Mrs. Hoggett goes off to a Country Women’s Guild meeting). Farmer Hoggett sits down in front of the tv, and…what does he watch? Not some fast-paced, highly-edited reality show. It is a long, unedited clip of three Swedish-looking women singing some sort of hymn. Farmer Hoggett watches intently.

I watched a rerun of Lawrence Welk on PBS once this way. A trombone player was playing an extended solo. I was fascinated by the way his eyes bugged out as his arm moved back and forth with the trombone. It might have been boring, but somehow was fascinating.

It sounds counter-intuitive in our click-and-surf culture, but do people ever view the Web this way? Can we help them, through intentional design, explore our content with calm intensity that is both simple and enjoyable?