We would really appreciate critiques on our website...

[Tom H]

We have been tinkering with our website and expanding the information on it to carry our facility newsletter and education programming outlines.

I'd sure appreciate some outside critiques on whether or not we are making it better or missing the target.

www.albertaaviationmuseum.com

Tom

[262crew]

Its awful How dare you add so much information and pictures! Just kidding It looks great Thanks for the link.

[RyanShort1]

I like it. My only negative impression is that that the introductory page seems a little slow to load even on my faster connection - I could see the placards on the instrument panel and click on them, but it took a bit for the next page to load. Enough that someone might think it "didn't work."
I case it helps, I'm using Firefox 3.0.8.

Ryan

[LadyO2Pilot]

I must admit that I have not seen a previous site. However, this one is great. You did a very good job; imformative and wonderful pictures of the aircraft. I especially liked the virtual tour of the museum. Thanks for sharing.

[kenair]

I'm not impressed, the sound effects came on loud, I find the sound effects annoying.

When I visit a web site I want to find the info fast not be challenged by some web building skills, is this a museum or a video game?

My preference is more like the EAA museum http://www.airventuremuseum.org/

[Kyleb]

Once I got past the opening page (the animation with sound), the website was very good. With the nice aircraft displays you have, I think a picture of one or more of your aircraft would be an improvement over the current opening page. Also, the sound on the opening page should be a user option, but the default should be no sound.

[Dudley Henriques]

We have been tinkering with our website and expanding the information on it to carry our facility newsletter and education programming outlines.

I'd sure appreciate some outside critiques on whether or not we are making it better or missing the target.

www.albertaaviationmuseum.com

Tom

Looks fine to me. It's simple and to the point without being over bearing. I've always seen web design for museums as making the museum more attractive to the viewer than the site. From a marketing viewpoint I think you folks did a fine job.
The site as I see it anyway is like a good cover letter introducing a resume.
You pique interest and put the concentration where it belongs.
Dudley Henriques

[Tom H]

Thanks everyone

Appreciate the input...

The page is a constant battle to find the right balance between what aviation types enjoy and the average non aviation user, its surprisingly different.

Being an airplane freak I fall towards loosing the animation, but the non aviation types rate it very highly. Next round we will try to tone it down a little.

Roughly 75% of our visitors are non aviation types (once we get them in we get them addicted) so its important to use what we have to get them in.

That said the 25% enthusiasts/veterans etc are very important so we try to get solid content on as well.

Its a tough balancing act so I like to get critiques when I can.

Tom

[Chris]

I think it's great. I kind of like the opening page with its sound. The DC-3 hangar has a similar home page. Several years go, we brought Sentimental Journey and the Heinkel up there and the people were great. Good luck with the Museum.

[jet1]

seems to load ok and its utilizing the latest web tech, but I don't like the sound. I typically move on when a web site insists that I listen to some sound or other. Maybe have it load with the sound as an option?
IMHO of course.

Last edited by jet1 on Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

[bdk]

I dislike websites with obnoxious sounds because everyone knows that I'm surfing the internet at work.

Otherwise I like the site very much. You have a wonderful collection of aircraft. One thing I can't wait to see is more info about the specific aircraft on display, where each one came from, service history, etc. I found the sub-scale replica aircraft to be interesting as well and would be interested in knowing more about them too.

[daveymac82c]

Hi Tom,

first off, I love your museum and had a really great time seeing your collection a few years ago. I especially love your mossie!

That being said, I agree with some of the respondents about how the opening page is too loud and the planes buzzing around is a little cheesy. Our museum's website used to start with a radial engine cranking over and starting sound, but for people with slow internet connections it really slowed down the page loading. It was also annoying if you've got speakers on and aren't expecting it, or are in a public place. Also, if you're listening to music on the computer and then go to a site with sound, the site's sound will usually dominate the music. Kind of annoying.

Personally, I prefer websites that are quick and simple to load. Flashiness is not important to me. I would do away with the opening page as it is and maybe replace it with something simple, like a welcoming page with a beautiful picture or some nice image with an "Enter" button which then leads to the second page.

Your museum's site, once past the opening page is really great. I like the functionality of it, and how clean and organized it is. In the collections page, I like how you can choose the airplanes on the right side, and how you can view the pictures closer up, with the shading of the rest of the screen. It's a really nice effect.

With regards to the aircraft collection page though, I am the kind of person that wants to learn something about your airplanes. I appreciate the dimensions and performance information, but what excites me the most about airplanes is their history: what they were used for and what they did during their flying careers, and how they ended up in the museum. That is something that would vastly improve things in my opinion.

I hope my ideas help somewhat.

Cheers,

David

[Tulio]

Tom, after going beyond the first page, I found a nicely laid up web site.

Personally, I could do without the badly animated aircraft.

Luckily for me, I have the sound turned off, but unwanted music turns me away from a web page. If it is aviation, I want to see aircraft, not to be entertained with music.

Someone said that music should be an option, not the default, and I fully agree.

Another thing is, if I am visiting the Alberta Aviation Museum, why do I have to click on a link to "enter" the Alberta Aviation Museum?

In my humble opinion, this would be a nice welcome page:

http://albertaaviationmuseum.com/index. ... &Itemid=30

All in all, I like the website!

What about an internal link for "donations"?

Saludos,


Tulio

[Tom H]

Thanks everyone for your input, I take it all very seriously.

The Flash animation is a tough one, non aviation types review it really highly , which is why we have maintained it, aviation types its pretty split with most leaning to remove it. That said we are continuing to grow our attendance and member base so it has stayed to this point. That could change in the next round. But the 75%non aviation/25%aviation split is something we have to pay attention to.

See why I said its a tough balancing act.

daveymac82c

Appreciate you comments, we use the website as a teaser to get people to visit so for in depth information on specific aircraft we hope you visit. If you can't please feel free to contact the Museum and we gladly provide additional information.

Tulio

Working on both on line donations and on line sales...just haven't got there yet.

Once again I really appreciate the critiques, it helps us grow and meet everyones needs.

Did anyone check out the education programming or newsletter?

Tom

[Dan K]

Did anyone check out the education programming or newsletter?

Having been involved in education professionally for more years than I care to admit, I did check out your aviation program for sixth graders. I just wasn't sure you were desiring feedback.

For the most part, I liked it (I'll let you discover the small spelling error on Problem #6 ).

The one part that could really use improvement (but probably isn't your fault--I'll explain shortly) is the section dealing with how wings generate lift (Problem #6), and thus also how propellers generate thrust (Problem #9). Problems #6 and #9 infer that wings and propellers work because of the Bernoulli Principle, but that simply isn't correct. What really is at work is described by Newton's Third Law: For every action there exists an equal and opposite reaction.

The reason I stated that this isn't your fault is because, for some reason, science textbooks repeat this error over and over again. In fact, I have yet to examine a 6th grade science textbook that gets this right. Since the typical science teacher isn't all that familiar with aerodynamics in the first place, the misinformation found in the textbooks keeps getting repeated.

Here's a neat website on this very topic that I use when teaching a self-made aviation unit to junior high students.

http://www.geocities.com/galemcraig/

I think it would be pretty cool if your aviation-based institution could teach correct lift doctrine to the masses, and in the process perhaps you could persuade the entire Alberta Public School system to stop abusing Bernoulli in the classroom.