http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en

On February 19, 2008 I visited the website of the Louvre Museum, located in Paris, France. I have visited the museum in person before, and I thought it would be interesting to see how the museum is portrayed and what information is given through its website. The website was thorough, helpful for a range of audiences, and interesting in content.  I found that it had information on every aspect of the museum and its contributors, a neat layout and design, as well as pictures and descriptions of the specific types of art that the museum contains. 

The Louvre is a former palace, which is now an incredible, but somewhat overwhelmingly large, museum with over 35,000 works of art. Despite the size of the museum and the amount of its contents, the website gave information on basically anything that I would want to know about the museum. I was able to find out about the history of the museum, its current exhibitions and personal collection, and even get  a virtual tour of the museum.  At first arrival to the main page, it gives credit to sponsors and partners and I thought that it was good to show that to begin with. It is a sign of the care that the museum takes in being accurate and honorable. Credit and information is always given where it is needed, and the website is very thorough. Through use of categories and sub-categories the information is also organized well.

The particular layout of a website is incredibly important in helping it’s audience to understand and navigate a site and the Louvre museum’s website was clear, straight to the point, and it made finding the right information an easy task. The museum is classic, and rich in history as well as vast amounts of artwork, and represents quite a range of styles. Therefore, it is appropriate that the website was designed with neutral colors. The websites of some newer and more modern museums make a loud impression through use of bright colors and bold designs. Instead, at the website of the Louvre, the artwork that I came across was in color, and against the neutral surroundings it became the focus of attention.  The Louvre Museum logo lies at the top of the main page, which serves as a guide to all areas of the museum. The logo is visible at the top of every page, and will always bring a viewer back to the main page if they desire. Under the logo is a row of categories to choose from, and I put my cursor over “Collection,” which produced a drop down menu of sub-categories. This made it simple to go to the specific page that I wanted. I wanted to see some of the permanent works of art that are showcased at the museum so I clicked on “curatorial departments.” This enabled me to choose from any type of art at the museum, some being Islamic art, sculptures, paintings, etc. I chose Egyptian Antiquities. 

The section on Egyptian Antiquities was full of both general and specific information, as well as pictures of each work of art and a detailed description alongside it. I was able to sort through all the pictures by time period or theme, so I chose the theme of “objects from everyday life.” I was able to see spoons, game boards, tunics, bottles, and written stories.  It was interesting to see these objects that are so old and that we still use today, in one form or another. Seeing the game boards made me think of the ancient Egyptians as normal people, having fun together, and it made me think of how most of our game boards would never last as long as theirs have. Our games might be lost in time to come. I also appreciated the fact that the Louvre has a website so that people all over the world can see different kinds of artwork without actually traveling to Paris.

Through the Louvre online, I was able to see all kinds of artwork from the convenience of my computer at home. If I were in charge of the Louvre website I wouldn’t make any changes at this point in time because of how organized it is already. I think that it is accurate in getting information across, and in making it accessible and easy to understand. Because the Louvre houses so much artwork it is even more crucial that it has a website that is clear and full of knowledge, and it definitely accomplished that goal.