Inspired by the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library and expanding on situations particular to museum content (particularly exhibitions and catalogues), audiences and context (from stereotypes of museums as boring and dry to issues around authority and trust in cultural heritage)...
These design patterns might be useful for coming up with common data structures that could inform a shared schema for linking across collections, help provide a framework for sharing audience evaluation and comparing visitation figures, etc.
A bit of an experiment - let's see if it sticks.
If you're using design patterns already, do any that particularly need adapting come to mind? Or can you share some behaviours you've noticed that are typical of museum audiences?
Suggestions for simple starting points also welcome! I've put some very initial rough thoughts below - with any luck there are existing current typologies out there that could replace this.
Participation rates on museum blogs and other commenting sites are often low, perhaps lower than the equivalent content might attract on a non-museum site. How have the most successful sites encouraged participation and comment?
NB: many sites will contain a mixture of types, though often collections or exhibition sites are presented as 'microsites'.
Do these still exist?
From shiny interactive/multimedia brochureware to games tied to the gallery experience/content.
Presentations of exhibition content, usually replicating curatorial or physical organisation methods used in the physical gallery or a translation of the print catalogue into a website.
Is this just about the level of interpretation - narratives, thematic contexts etc wrapped around object records?
Online catalogue, generally with organisation structures that replicate the management structures or subjects of the museum.