On-line museum projects implementation: Basic principles of design and special aspects of art content

Abstract

Intensive development of the Web has significant impact on social communication processes. New principles of information distribution demand new approach for being involved in on-line communication. Social institutions, including museums and exhibition centers aim to develop their presence on the Web, searching for ways to engage visitors with new experience. In most cases presence on-line has a form of representative website which pages contain general information on museum services and some examples from its collection. Another approach is enhancement of real exhibition with additional online experience, such as interactive applications, virtual excursions, game tours, audio tours, mobile guides and other technologies, which remove boundaries between in-site and online museum visiting. Theory and practice of museum representative web-site implementation has been a scope of research of Institute of Arts, a department of Saint-Petersburg State University, for about 5 years. Recently we have developed several museum projects, including website designing. Among them: `Saint-Petersburg Nabokov museum', `Virtual museum of Neva River Delta', `Nereditsa Church' etc. Using our accumulated practical experience we have formulated main principles, stages and specific features of museum website design. The main object of our research is textual and visual content of museum web pages, its authenticity and quality. Another object is interface design of on-line museum, principles of its structure, simplicity, accessibility and responsiveness. Beyond that we analyze how innovative technologies and devices can enhance museum functions.