Evaluating websites of museums: State of the art

ICTs and the web have changed the way the users interact with museum exhibits providing alternative interactions and many advantages. Indeed, studies have shown a tremendous increase of online museum visitors. However, for a website to attract more visitors to the museum, it should be evaluated as usable and functional. This paper makes a state of the art on the evaluation experiments of museums' websites. More specifically, it focuses on the methods used and tries to categorize the experiments found in the literature with respect to the method used. It describes the tools that may be used for implementing an evaluation experiment. Emphasis is given on the evaluation of special aspects of the use of ICTs in museums such as the use of handheld devices as well as VR tours. The review concludes on the most common criteria used for the evaluation of museum websites by real or expert users.