1. Explore and discuss the following online exhibits. What do you most appreciate about them, and why? What about them is least interesting or attractive to you, and why?
- Steve Jobs at the Computer History Museum
- Lincoln and the West from the Newberry Library and Chicago History Museum
- Historic Threads: Three Centuries of Clothing from Colonial Williamsburg
2. Look over the exhibition framework handout, then answer these questions.
- The exhibition framework asks you to evaluate physical exhibitions in four categories: comfort, engagement, reinforcement, and meaningfulness. How relevant do you think these four qualities are to online exhibitions? Explain.
- If you were to come up with four essential qualities by which evaluators could judge online exhibits, what qualities would you choose, and why?
3. In your opinion, which of the three exhibits listed in Question #1 comes closest to “best practice” in online exhibition, and why? (Refer to your revised exhibition framework.)
4. What characteristics or qualities would you like to see in the online exhibit we will build for this class? Why?
I appreicate how each thing has impacted today becuase they have led to advancements.
I think other qualities that should be exhibited for our class is the criteria including, comfortable should also include presentation of the website. Is the presentation of the website easy to nativage and is it simple.
I think that it is important for an online exhibit to be easy to navigate and well organized. The Steve Jobs exhibit did this well. Breaking up text with pictures is useful so the viewer is not overwhelmed with too much information.
I think the Lincoln website comes closest to “best practice” in online exhibition. It seems interesting, welcoming, and fun as soon as you arrive. There isn’t an overwhelming amount of writing so people shouldn’t feel as if it is a school setting. The buttons on the left side all have sub buttons so getting lost is unlikely and finding your way back to something interesting should be relatively easy.
The Lincoln and the west exhibit seems to be the most efficient in being simple and to the point. I like how there are links on the left to the different subjects. It would be more interesting with a broader photo gallery, and our project would most likely produce more photos. Color and layout add to the intriguing nature of the site.
Question #3~
In my opinion, the website about Abraham Lincoln is the best of the three I viewed. It had enough information to be meaningful, with clear headings and subheadings to keep everything organized, but not so much that it felt overwhelming. This I felt was the case with the clothing exhibition… There was SO much to look at that the significance of objects that may have been very useful we’re lost amidst a jumble of images, many of which didn’t have labels that I saw.
Following a guideline for exibition quality is important since the information and display must be fluid, orgainic, informative, factual, engaging to the observer. The intended impression must be meaningful and reinforce a specific theme/thesis. The “Historic Threads” exhibition is an example of an engaging and informative digital exhibit. This exhibition meets the four fundamental requirements demanded for an excellent exhibition. The website is easy to navigate and engaging. The pictures are very vivid and display the textures and various colors well. The various pictures also can reinforce class differences by displaying assorted clothes, textures, fabrics, colors, and craftsmanship quality. The available cornucopia of pictures is excellent and invites the observer to explore further into the digital archive.
The digital archive our class creates should be user friendly and accessible to all mobile digital devices and respective operating systems. A combination of pictures, video, and virtual historic tours would be interesting and invite engagement from the user.
The best practice I believe when looking at the three different exhibits would be the Steve Jobs. I felt this website was very easy to navigate and follow. I really enjoyed how there were some pictures on the side which went in chronological order to help support the text. If you are someone who is perhaps more of a visual learner, this would be a good example of how it would let you put the different technological inventions in order.
I thought the Steve jobs exhibit was the most engaging and easiest to use. The mix of quotes, pictures and text made the exhibition flow. organizing the text and pictures chronologically made understanding the development of Steve jobs’ ideas clear and easy to follow. The clothing exhibit was the least accessible and engaging.
When comparing the three online archives I decided that the Steve Jobs one was the best when it came to formatting. The layout guided you and kept your interest by paring a picture with the given information. In an attempt to improve the site I would possibly put a photo gallery at the bottom so one could revisit images without searching through the text.
Lee
Out of the three websites I felt the most successful website for myself and my own learning style was the Steve Jobs site. It was straight forward and I found myself more engaged in the readings. The historic threads was fun but it was hard to read the dark text. I feel as though the more simple the site it visually adds to a more successful site.
The Lincoln exhibit seems to work really well. It allows for the user to look at items in the exhibit and understand the information. Information is presented in a way that is engaging and understanding.
When building an online exhibit, it would be necessary to present the artifacts in a colorful and informational manner. Also, it is important to keep the information short and to the point, so as not bog down the reader.
I prefer the Lincoln exhibit. There are a lot of different directions to take your research and it’s organized and user friendly, I felt comfortable navigating around and engaged with the information. It was not to wordy but not so simple that you’re left with a lack of understanding. The photographs reinforced the information and gave the opportunity to read things first hand.
I think the Steve Jobs archive was the best. It was very well organized and gave you the option to go deeper into exploring. It was all on one page so it made finding places in the exhibit easier.
Personally I feel that the Steve Jobs exhibition was the best example of how to operate an online exhibition. The site was simple, yet rich in data. The site also flowed much better than the others which helped the audience take more information out of the exhibit. It did a great job of embodying Steve Jobs style.
The Steve Jobs exhibit at the Computer History Museum comes the closest to best practice because of the overall organization. The organization allowed viewers to stay engaged about the material at hand and had an easy flow. Despite that the exhibit was on one page, the material was all at hand not allowing room for error.
In answering question #1, it seems that the Clothing website seems to be the closest to what is being represented with the framework worksheet. The Steve Jobs memorial seems is a timeline inclusive of his life, but this could be considered recent history. The Lincoln exhibit is also a timeline showing the significant events of his life celebrating the two hundredth aniversary of his birth. The clothing website is closer to a true museum exhibit, showing the article itself and a brief history of the article of clothing and who wore it. In looking at the four steps represented on the framework sheet, I feel that this exhibit does make a person comfortable, it is not intrusive, it is engaging, the articles reinforce the history that is being portrayed and the fact that the older articles of clothing has survived this long is truly meaningful.
When comparing the three exhibits and deciding which of the exhibits best practices for online exhibition, the gallery concerning Steve Jobs accomplished the goals most efficiently. The gallery used mostly secondary sources but supplemented those with primary images and first-hand accounts. The gallery was very immersive and engaging, providing a wealth of knowledge for the viewer. The was also a lasting impression left with the viewer, mostly emerging from the unique set-up of the gallery.
The Lincoln website was the best example of an online exhibition. The way that the webbite is organized simplifies the exhibit. You do not have to be technologically savvy to navigate through the website. It was a very fact filled exhibition. The only thing that this exhibition lacked was its visual appeal.
I think the Steve Jobs website was the best because the layout was very inviting and easy to follow. I liked that it read like a story because it made it relatable to the viewer. I think there was a nice balance between pictures and text. The subject matters also very relevant.
I found the Steve jobs exhibit to be the best overall. I really enjoyed how it was organized on one page so you didn’t get lost in links. It used a good balence of pictures quotes and description. I thought that the lincoln exhibit was the least appealing as it was very bland and didn’t engage me as a reader. There was also too many links to get lost in.
When constructing our galleries, carefully balancing pictures and text is important. With too much text, there is a chance that the reader could be turned off of the gallery altogether. Yet this is a professional-grade history project and the ultimate goal is to educate. Striking a balance between these elements is key to the success of the project.
I appreciated the left tool bar on the Lincoln site as well as the use of color versus the black on white of the Steve Jobs site. I really enjoyed the text and stories of the Steve Jobs site as well as the relevance of the site.
For me the Steve Jobs exhibit came closest to the best practice of an online exhibit. I found it to be very engaging because you were always able to access a new link or click on a new picture. It was very informative without being monotonous. All the information went along with the reinforcing quality according to the exhibit framework. It was also meaningful because I grew up in silicon valley and so Steve Jobs and that history was something that I was exposed to at an early age. For our own exhibit I would probably use more colors and make it more appealing. I would also want our exhibit to be easy to follow and navigate through.
The exhibit of Steve Jobs was rather engaging. The way they show the evolution of the computer throughout the life of Steve Jobs makes for an interesting comparison. This topic, in general, is comfortable because this generation has an instant connection to technology and the Apple company. This exhibit is instantly engaging because almost everyone of this generation knows of Steve Jobs and Apple. Due to the fact that this is in a Computer history museum, it does a good job of laying out that history. On the other hand, I do not feel as though this exhibit gives justice to the Steve Jobs legacy.
I enjoyed the Lincoln and the West exhibit the most because I found it easy to navigate and found that I was reading more and more of it, even when I knew I needed to move on. I enjoyed the quotes and the different kinds of history through his life.
I would like us to be very creative but also realize that all of us are not super tech savvy. I think that having that personal connection to an object is a must in an online exhibit, there are. No oohs and ahhs like you can sometimes hear at a museum, you are forced to not join in with public opinion.
4. Aspects of the sites I would want emulated in our class exhibit:
Navigability – Visitors should be able to position themselves in the site. It’s comforting to see a menu on the side or at the top of the web page–I don’t want to feel lost in the website. Menus that clearly organize information make the content less intimidating.
Mixed media – The Steve Jobs site appealed to me because there were pictures and quotes mixed into the text. The colonial clothing exhibit had great pictures, but I didn’t like that the pictures were separate and off to the side from their descriptions. Huge blocks of text without a visual break (especially if being viewed on electronic devices) are strenuous on the eye.
Conciseness – I felt as if the Lincoln site was overwhelming; there were a huge amount of links and directions you could go. The Steve Jobs exhibit, on the other hand, didn’t have so many offshoots and subheadings. It felt clean–it was very “Apple.” I would want our own site to be visually simple and uncluttered.
I think two key characteristics that our online class exhibit should be sure to possess are ease of navigation and the existence of a variety of multimedia sources.
One of the biggest frustrations in viewing these exhibits provided was being unsure where to start, and where to go next. I think that it is important that it be layed out in a way that makes it easy for viewers to navigate in a way that makes sense chronilogically, as well as visually.
Also, I think a number of media sources need to be used, i.e., audio, visual (both pictures and videos), AND text. This will encourage interactive engagement from the viewer, which will cause them to be more likely to delve farther into our exhibits content.
3. In my opinion the online clothing exhibit from Colonial Williamsburg utilizes the criteria of “best practice” for online exhibits. With it’s use of textual information and visual information it allows viewers to engage thoroughly in learning about fashion over time. I learned several new facts about fashionable and practical garb during the 18th and 19th centuries from this website, giving me a sense of “intellectual competence” and making the exhibit more meaningful to me and likely many other visitors. This online exhibit encompasses components of each of the for “best practice” criteria: comfort, engagement, reinforcement and meaningfulness; making it, overall, and excellent online exhibit and a great example of history that is accessible for the public.
The beauty and demise of exhibitions is that subjectivity enters into the realm before objectivity every time. That being said, I was instantly attracted to the Colomial Threads site due to my predisposed interest and my need for pictorial representation in order to retain interest.
Therefore, ttrying to judge the three against each other objectively was difficult. Separately, I would say the Williamsburg site and the Jobs site both fit the ctieria of best possible while the Lincoln site is bland and boring.
Taking away from this exersize I feel there are three important aspects my team needs to create a great online exhibit: an excellent camera, large font, and clear percise wording.
The site needs to be easily navigated for sure and must be entertaining
The site needs to be easily navigated for sure and must be entertaining. Must flow
This is hard for me I still read the online exhibits and simply websites. I’d prefer to actually walk through a gallery, and am having a hard time believing that online exhibits can evoke the same “feeling”. In terms of engaging I prefer the clothing exhibition due to all its visuals, rather than excessive text. In addition the context of the clothing exhibit is something we access everyday though maybe not those exact articles of clothing. Regardless, thinking about the change in attire over the years in its relation to social norms/life is meaning.
“Historical Threads” was the online exhibition that I enjoyed the most in regard to the framework(comfort,engaging,reinforcing, and meaningful.) This site was very engaging to me as it offered clear pictures that allowed one to really experience textures, patterns and materials up closely though online. I would like more audio aids in the virtual exhibition that we create to reinforce the online experience. Maybe even a optional guide would be helpful for those who desire it to increase comfortability while navigating the different informational links. Still, I am a very hands on person and would like to be in a physical museum where choice is present, therefore; any contribution that stimulates hands on learning styles of students in ways that are similar to physical exhibitions, I eagerly welcome.