Sarah Wambold
Goshka Macuga microsites for the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
This post is a collaboration between Sarah Wambold and Marty Spellerberg. Sarah Wambold is a Denver-based project manager and documentary producer. Marty Spellerberg is an Austin-based interactive media designer/developer.
Goshka Macuga is the MCA Chicago’s 2013 Artist In Residence.
“Macuga’s work interweaves two strands that have helped define contemporary art in the last decade: artists’ increasing tendency toward historical and archival research and their growing interest in strategies of display and the dialogue between artistic and curatorial practice.”
— Dieter Roelstraete
Inspired by Hamburg Conversations on Art: Hamburg Comedy, a 1896 work German Jewish art historian Aby Warburg, Macuga’s residency project is to create a Chicago Comedy. But because the resulting work, likely to be a play, will not exist until the end of the term, the artist’s process is being documented and presented to the public as Preparatory Notes for a Chicago Comedy. Our team became involved as interactive media designers/developers.
With no artist on site—she’s in London—and no objects being produced in the early phases, how would museum visitors know there was, in fact, a residency taking place? We needed a physical manifestation or marker that would let the public know what was happening as it was happening.
In-Gallery iPad Kiosk
The artist was opposed to creating a object or an installation “as a placeholder,” so digital, with its ability to present a depth of information in a physically economical and engaging way, emerged as the best candidate. iPads as part of a title wall installation became the solution for a physical, onsite manifestation of the residency.
Early in the year, Macuga was joined by MCA Curator Dieter Roelstraete for a romp around the city, seeking to “excavate Chicago’s lesser-known histories, forgotten folktales, and best-kept secrets.” The material they generated became the basis for our presentation.
Since the artist’s notes were organized around places she visited around the city, we chose an interactive map interface. This provided an instantly relevant format: Onsite visitors are, by definition, present in Chicago and likely to relate to a map of the city. This also served to emphasize the project’s connection and relevance to the local community, a goal of the Museum’s residency program generally.
The technical solution was based on the technique demonstrated in Marty’s Integrating WordPress and Google Maps tutorial, which he previously used to create an in-gallery kiosk for the Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles.
Museum Website
We also wanted to put something online that could live-on once the residency itself is completed. We realized, over several discussions with the curator, that Macuga’s work would find its form in phases: Lateral research of canvassing Chicago; vertical research of deep dives at the Warburg Institute; production, likely to happen abroad; and a to-be-determined final presentation. The digital strategy would need to respond to each of these.
We recognized that the map interface would be inadequate for telling the rest of the story of the residency; as Macuga moved from research-based activities, some happening abroad, and into production, using a map to navigate the content would no longer make sense.
The Museum had a history of stand-alone project blogs, and we made the choice to continue that format in this case. The first thing we did was to consolidate the most recent blogs under a unified banner and feed, which improved the prospects for long-term maintenance, as well as providing added context for future researchers. But we also wanted to provide a unique feel specific to the here-and-now, so we designed a two-column landing page using the Packery layout library.
The project was driven by a core creative concept that came into view over a period of time, as the artist’s process revealed the characteristics of the artwork she is creating. By adopting an agile design and development methodology, our team was able to respond to the changing needs for the project mid-course. The result was a compelling, revealing and engaging presentation for Museum visitors both onsite and online.
Project Collaborators
Digital Team
Producer and Project Manager: Sarah Wambold
Designer and Developer: Marty Spellerberg
Content Coordinator: Marian Oman
Residency Team
Project Manager: Erika Hanner
Curator: Dieter Roelstraete
Content Creators: Michelle Puetz, Dieter Roelstraete, and Goshka Macuga
Understanding Museum Website Visitor Motivation using Google Analytics
This post is a collaboration between Sarah Wambold and Marty Spellerberg. Sarah Wambold is a Denver-based project manager and documentary producer. Marty Spellerberg is an Austin-based interactive media developer.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool for understanding traffic to a website. The standard site statistics, however, don’t always tell the full story.
For instance, interpreting the duration of an average site visit is highly speculative. It is typically thought that the longer a visitor spends on the site the better, and that shorter interactions are less successful. But this is not necessarily the case.
Take a visitor who comes to the site looking for the museum’s hours. If she was able to quickly and efficiently locate the information she needed, this interaction should be considered positive, despite the short visit duration. Conversely, if she was unable to find the information and had to search for a longer amount of time to find the information, the long duration would signal that the interaction had been considerably less successful in this instance.
A combination of survey techniques is necessary to overcome this reporting challenge and understand the successes, shortcomings, and opportunities of a Museum’s website.
Augmenting the Standard Stats
Working with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, we wanted to increase our insight into how the site was being used. We knew that, in order to analyze current and inform future online offerings, we needed to be able to identify which kinds of users were accessing the site. Are there, in fact, different motivations for visitors to come to the MCA’s site? If so, how do those groups differ in their use of the site? To gain this information, we conducted a Visitor Motivation Survey.
We modeled our survey after a study by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We placed a one-question survey on the homepage, asking visitors to the site to self-identify into one of five user groups based on why they were visiting the site that day. Assuming IMA’s methodology, the choices we presented were:
- Plan a visit to the museum
- Find specific information for research or professional purpose
- Find specific information for personal interest
- Engage in casual browsing, without looking for something specific
- Make a transaction on the website
The visitor’s choice was synced with Google Analytics, using a custom variable to tie it to the record of their browsing session. This allowed us to model activity across the site, segmented by motivational category.
Comparing Engagement Levels
By requiring participants to interact by answering the survey question, we could infer a minimal level of engagement with the site. We segmented this group of “engaged visitors” from those users who may have found themselves on the site erroneously. Comparing these samples allowed for a more informed analysis of site traffic overall.
The survey launched on Nov 4, 2013, and collected responses for 16 weeks, receiving 1,086 responses in total. A report based on the first eight weeks yielded revealing insights into the MCA’s online audiences.
Analysis of the survey data identified which motivation groups are most likely to return to the site, and the content these types of users are seeking to engage with. The Museum is now able to apply this information in a strategic content plan aimed at generating increased repeat visitation and overall site traffic.
Project Collaborators
Producer and Project Manager: Sarah Wambold
Designer and Developer: Marty Spellerberg
Shoutout/thanks to Gray Bowman for sharing code from the IMA’s implementation.
Website redesign for the Clyfford Still Museum
Featuring a bold, responsive design, the new website for the Clyfford Still Museum launched in October, 2014. This new site helps the museum position itself as a destination, a site of pilgrimage for art lovers interested in the life and work of master abstract expressionist painter Clyfford Still.
The project goals were to simplify the navigation and information architecture; build a new, more flexible and user-friendly content management system; and provide a updated, responsive design that featured more generous visuals and highlighted the museum’s building—an architectural gem.
We employed an Agile approach and worked with museum stakeholders to identify institutional priorities for the redevelopment project. We conducted several assessments of the previous site, including a site audit and a usability study, as well as several assessments of the information architecture throughout the process, to test our assumptions and inform our final decisions.
Project Collaborators
Content Strategist and Project Manager: Sarah Wambold
Designer: Scott Reinhard
Developer: Marty Spellerberg / Spellerberg Associates
for the Clyfford Still Museum: Dean Sobel and John Eding
Presentation at MW 2015: Agile Methodologies For Changing Project Scopes
I’ll be presenting at Museums and the Web in April. Sarah Wambold and I have put together a talk on Agile project management methodologies for museum website redevelopment projects we’re calling “Building the car while driving it.” We’ll be presenting on the first day of the conference, Thursday, April 09. From the programme:
Using real-world projects from the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Clyfford Still Museum as the basis for our discussion, the authors identify the principles of an Agile design approach tailored specifically to the needs of museums—with their many stakeholders, diverse audiences, and limited resources. We discuss roles, timelines, and the benefits achieved by employing Agile methodologies to respond to evolving project needs and priorities.
In preparation for the talk, we’ve put together a paper which has been published online.
Museums and the Web is “an annual conference featuring advanced research and exemplary applications of digital practice for cultural, natural and scientific heritage.” This year it’ll be held at The Palmer House in Chicago, April 8-11, 2015.
Presentations at MW 2016
I’m proud to announce that I’ll be presenting at Museums and the Web this year. I’m involved in two sessions:
The first is Visitor-First, Mobile-First: Designing a Visitor-Centric Mobile Experience, part of part of the User-Centered Design session, chaired by Michael Parry of the Powerhouse Museum. In this panel Elise Granata and I’ll be presenting on our work redesigning the homepage of the Santa Cruz MAH (which I’ve posted about here). We’ll be joined by Sarah Wambold, of the Clyfford Still Museum, who’ll expand on the adaptation of John Falk’s visitor motivation research to the type of user personas used in UX design. The three of us collaborated on a paper, which has been published online.
The second is Falk Meets Online Motivation: Results from a Nationwide Survey Project, part of the Lightning Talks: Practice series, chaired by Nik Honeysett of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative. In this session, Sarah Wambold and I’ll be giving an introduction to the National Museum Website VMS project (which I’ve posted about here).
These projects are very much connected, the later growing out of the former, so it’s great to have this opportunity to present them both. This year’s conference is taking place April 6-9, 2016 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. See you there!
Presentation at MW 2016: The National Museum Website Visitor Motivation Survey
I had the honor of presenting an introduction to the National Museum Website Visitor Motivation Survey project at the 2016 Museums and the Web conference in Los Angeles. I shared this honor with my project co-leader, Sarah Wambold, Director of Digital Media at the Clyfford Still Museum. What follows are the slides and speaking notes from our presentation.
We are conducting a study with two dozen museums and cultural organizations across the country.
The project surveys the motivations of visitors to museum websites, based on the framework of visitor motivation developed by museum researcher John Falk. The quantitative data is collected through each institution’s Google Analytics account.
In his book Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, Falk identifies five key types of visitors who attend museums and the internal motivations that drive repeat visitation. These motivations are Explorer, Facilitator, Experience Seeker; Professional/Hobbyist; Recharger.
This is what the survey looks like. It appears on every page of the website, pinned to the bottom of the window. Users click it and it opens up.
The survey options are consistent across every institution. But the fonts and color are customized to match the individual site’s design.
The technical implementation is similar to the one used in a website visitor motivation survey by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. That survey was presented here at MW in 2012.
Here’s how it works. First, we configure the Google Analytics account with what’s called a “Custom Dimension.” We then install the VMS user interface on the site. This consists of snippets of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
We have a version of the code packaged as a WordPress plugin, and a version packaged as a Drupal module. The underlying survey code can be adapted to any platform.
When the visitor chooses a motivation, it sets the Custom Dimension. This is a text string indicating their choice. And that’s the extent of the additional info we’re collecting. The rest is standard Google Analytics. The response is retained for the duration of the browsing session.
Participants are using the data to better understand how visitors are using their website and inform their work at their individual institutions. Here’s a report I ran for the Clyfford Still Museum.
This is website visitor sessions, broken down by motivation. The red area represents the “facilitators,” people who are planning a visit for a group.
One of the things that really resonated with me from Falk’s book is that most museums’ marketing is based on the exhibition schedule, but that most museum visitors have little if any prior knowledge of what’s on. This is particularly true of the Facilitators group, which prompted me to suggest to my institution that our next marketing campaign should be, “Look smart to your friends. Come to the Clyfford Still.”
One of the other advantages of this study is the ability to compare data across institutions. Here’s that same “sessions by motivation,” but for all participants. This allows us to spot trends.
In this chart, the “facilitators” are, again, red. As you can see, there’s a fairly consistent breakdown of audience in this way, with Facilitators taking the largest slice of the pie.
But there are also some outliers, which raises interesting questions about what makes those websites unique and what conclusions we can draw from that. We’ve only just begun to unpack the data.
This is not just a research study, but a community of museums who are looking to better understand their online audiences.
In order to facilitate those conversations, we’ve started a forum on Slack. Professionals from each institution use this forum to ask questions and share knowledge.
We have threads dedicated to better understanding audience behavior; to website redesign projects; and to determining the benchmarks and trends that hold true across institutions.
A huge shout out to all the participants for this study. If you are from one of these institutions, please stand up. [Note: At this point our colleagues stood up and received a round of applause. ] If you’re interested in learning more about the study, please feel free to say “hi” to any of us.