THE Museum of Science and Industry picked up a gold award for Tourism Website of the Year at the prestigious North West Tourist Board Chairman’s Awards 2003 recently.
And looking at its website www.msim.org.uk it's not hard to see why. An easy-to-navigate clean design with text on easily read white background proves the old adage that simple is often best. The visitor information is clear and there’s interactive items such as a virtual tour, puzzles and games as well as educational material available for downloading.

At the other side of town in the real world and the other end of web design philosophy in the virtual world, is Urbis. The website for the museum concerned with modern life at www.urbis.org.uk welcomes visitors with a scrolling piece of animation and a selection of boxes to click onto. Additional navigation is housed in a series of drop down lists which emerge from a “mouse over”. The visitor information is easy to follow but sections such as “arrive” , “change”, “order” and “explore” relate to the building rather than the online experience.

The People’s History Museum website at www.peopleshistorymuseum.org.uk is a straightforward affair. Visitors are greeted with a home page which sets out what the museum does and a clear navigation bar delivers the the necessary information. There’s no real interactivity going on here but anyone wishing to visit the museum will find the site an easy-to-use reference point.

At the Imperial War Museum North website www.iwm.org.uk/north there are interactive features galore – including online collections. This is a new feature to the site and means users can access the museum’s catalogues and browse short essays on major historical themes which lead to selected highlights from all the collections. The online catalogue is not yet complete but even so the present database covers the collections of documents, film and sound in detail and other collections are promised in 2003/04. In addition to this there are also online exhibitions. This site really takes on the medium of the web and isn’t simply a signpost.

The Manchester Jewish Museum website www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com is something of a basic project in comparison to the glossy effort above. A very basic site serves to give visitors essential information and further contact details if planning a trip but sadly very little information from the museum makes it into the virtual environment.

Greater Manchester Police Museum is afforded just one page within the main GMP website at www.gmp.police.uk/about_gmp/history.asp. It tells you where it is and what might be found there but that’s all folks.

Transport

The Museum of Transport has apparently had more than 49,000 visitors according to the counter on the home page at www.gmts.co.uk. I hope they weren’t all as disappointed as me. There is a virtual tour made up of still photographs and the basic information is all there but the site is very text-heavy with some out-of-date and missing pages.

Despite having extensive digital products and a vast website, Manchester United keep their museum pages quite hidden away. Eventually found at www.manutd.com/oldtrafford/museum.sps?iType=491&icustompageid=833
The pages are truly disappointing. Welcoming visitors with details of a discount, the single page devoted to the museum and tour simply lists the attractions which visitors could find. OK, we all know where it is which is just as well – there’s no address, map, contact telephone number or even opening times shown.

The Ordsall Hall Museum at www.ordsallhall.org has a few pages devoted to it on the main Salford City Council website. There is visitor information about the Tudor hall along with details about the Tudor Study Days - Ordsall Alive – for schools.

Finally, the Manchester Museum at http://www.museum.man.ac.uk gives details of its now completed £20M re-development as well as details of university projects including the fascination Egyptian Mummy Project.

Do you have a favourite museum website? Do you agree with our assessment of the sites? Let us know by submitting your comments below.

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