When we migrate business software like CRM, Accounting, Fundraising, Student Information, Collections Management, Content Management, or anything else to the Cloud or to SaaS (which is probably on some Cloud–so I’m going to use the terms interchangeably in this post), we accrue a lot of benefits. Remote access is easier, and you don’t need any […]
Tag: Institutions
A few words about the Metropolitan Museum of Art Website Relaunch
I was the primary lead on The Met’s website relaunch 2009-2012. We called it a “relaunch” rather than a redesign or rebuild because it really was about the whole site–strategy, design, technology, workflows, marketing, fundraising, everything. In 1999, The Met launched a website that made a lot of news and broke some new ground. There […]
In Support of LGBTQ+ Neighbors and Friends
In the wake of the over 380 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in the US this year alone, including many recent bills explicitly targeting members of the transgender community, Concrete Computing unambiguously stands with the LGBTQ+ community and against fear, misinformation, and hate of all kinds. LGBTQ+ people are our friends and family. They are our neighbors […]
Grant funding breaks everything
Grant funding, which asserts that big infusions of cash can bring some operation to a new level, sometimes handcuffs nonprofits. Think about this: when we attend a museum exhibition with an interactive technology element, we’re not at all surprised to see a lot of it not working right. There’s one very common reason for this. […]
Let’s start measuring impact at art museums
In the last few months several major institutions have publicly scaled back on digital operations, often as part of larger cost-cutting plans. Others have reorganized, or lost experienced tech staff in response to diminishing executive expectations. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, is scaling back on digital in order to cut costs. Staff of […]
Search-dominance and NYPL’s home page redesign
An earlier version of this post appears on the New York Public Library’s blog. I’m highlighting it here as a success in applying generalized web UX research to the specific needs and content of an institution. Among my first tasks upon taking leadership of the Website Department at New York Public Library in late 2012 […]
What to include in a web design RFP, RFQ, RFI
A lot of the work that I do on the side is helping nonprofits investigate and choose vendor partners for major tech upgrades. Website rebuilds, Art Management (Collections) systems, fundraising systems, CRMs, that kind of thing. I frequently get asked what to include in an RFP (or sometimes get asked to write them). Here is […]
What zoos’ websites could be doing for them
Museums, especially art museums, have made tons of progress in figuring out what it means to be a museum in the internet-connected world. All significant art museums now have most or all of their collections online, engaging social media strategies, and effective email marketing programs. And all these efforts are all fundamentally content-driven (i.e., they […]