31189a - Progress challenge 05

31189a - Progress challenge 05

Natural History Museum

NOTE: This challenge will help you complete assessment 4.

Choose a website for a popular Natural History Museum and construct a diagram of the site’s navigation structure.

Examine the menu system and explore the different levels.

You do not have to read all the content but take note of the page names. 

Perhaps there is a site map to help with this. Your diagram should reflect content and where to find it.

 What types of content are most effective on the site?

Now do a search for ‘T Rex’ or other fossil. Is it in the section that you were expecting?

 How would you rate the site out of 10 for usability and for content? Discuss.

 What suggestions would you make to improve the structure and information architecture of the site?

Record your findings and once again, your research should be a minimum of one page in length.

Answer

I chose The Australian Museum for this challenge[1].  Anyone who has an interest in natural history is sure to find it worthwhile.

We can see in this screenshot (on the home page), there is a navigation menu below the header.  This has eight sections: a home page, what’s on, our science, cultures, education, animals, blog and ‘about us’.

The bottom of the home page has a footer, which has another navigation menu in the bottom left corner.  This has four sections: a site map[2], privacy[3], copyright[4], and accessibility[5].

I clicked on the animals section and found ‘dinosaurs’[6] amongst the thumbnail shots.  I then followed the link stating ‘Tyrannosaurs’[7], and then followed the prompts on the Tyrannosaurs ‘family tree’ (the technical name being ‘raptorex’ for this species, according to the upload on the site)[8].

There is also a search bar in the top right corner.  I typed‘t-rex’ in there and found 37 results in total.  I could click on any link, depending upon the information I was after.  I clicked on ‘Giant T-Rex Gifted to Australian Museum’[9].  Finally, I was able to find the exact section it was related to (Media Centre)[10].  The Media Centre can also be accessed in the page’s footer.

Out of all these sections, I found the search bar the most effective in terms of finding specific information, and the site map (which arranges the names in alphabetical order) the least effective.  The reason is that you have to scroll down the lists before you find the information you need.  That can be annoying if you are pushed for time.

The usability and accessibility is good, I would probably rate it eight or 9 out of 10.  The accessibility page shows you how to navigate the site.  The information is well presented and would especially appeal to children and young people (so it is educational).  For people who may have difficulty reading the text, you can go to the accessibility page and find out how to change the size of the text to suit your reading needs.

I basically wouldn’t change anything about the site, except the site map (I would arrange it in some kind of hierarchy which would make it easier to know where to look).  Hence, if I wanted to find a particular item on the T-Rex, I would know exactly where to look.

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[1] http://australianmuseum.net.au/

[2] http://australianmuseum.net.au/sitemap

[3] http://australianmuseum.net.au/privacy

[4] http://australianmuseum.net.au/copyright

[5] http://australianmuseum.net.au/accessibility

[6] http://australianmuseum.net.au/dinosaurs-and-their-relatives

[7] http://australianmuseum.net.au/more-about-tyrannosaurs

[8] http://australianmuseum.net.au/uploads/documents/29739/tyrannosaur%20family%20tree.jpg

[9] http://australianmuseum.net.au/media/giant-t-rex-gifted-to-australian-museum

[10] http://australianmuseum.net.au/media-resources