evaluating cultural websites

Jane Finnis, Culture24, United Kingdom; Seb Chan, Powerhouse Museum, Australia; and Rachel Clements, Central Saint Martins, United Kingdom

Abstract

How to measure and define the success of cultural websites and online services is a problem common to all parts of the cultural sector – museums, archives, galleries, arts organizations, libraries and publishers. Worse, funding agencies and government departments lack the expertise to offer guidelines or set standards. The result is a confusing mixture of statistics and reporting that reveals little about genuine user satisfaction.

In mid-2010, a group of 24 organizations and agencies from across the cultural heritage and arts sector in the UK began collaborating on a piece of action research addressing the issues around 'evaluating online success'. Coordinated by Culture24 and working with Seb Chan, the groups of institutions have been developing a framework and best practice guide for measuring online projects both on organizational websites and those presented through social media channels.

Keywords: evaluation, metrics, evaluating cultural websites