Characteristics of Museum’s Website in Jakarta as a Publication Site
How to cite this article:
Susilowardhani, Erna Mariana., & Wiastuti, Rachel Dyah. (2014). Characteristics of Museum’s Website in Jakarta as a Publication Site. Proceeding of The 1st International International Conference on Corporate and Marketing Communication (ICCOMAC). Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia. September 9th, 2014. Jakarta Indonesia. ISBN 9786028904582
Characteristics of Museum’s Website in Jakarta as a Publication Site
Erna Mariana Susilowardhani
Email: ernams.erna@gmail.com
Faculty of Communications Science, University of Persada Indonesia YAI, Jakarta-Indonesia
Rachel Dyah Wiastuti
Email: rachel.dyah.w@gmail.com
Faculty of Hotel Management, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta-Indonesia
ABSTRACT
Website is considered primarily as a means of communication and it is also categorized as one of publication site. Majority of prospective tourism visitor start their research on the internet. A well designed and maintained website is a very important tool for any tourism business, including museum. The purpose of this paper is to analyze museum website and to examine its characteristic. This paper is qualitative-explorative research. Jakarta Tourism Board website was used as main reference to obtain which museum that was selected. Secondary data was collected from twelve official museums website observations in Jakarta. The results provide details analysis about museum website in depth description refers to each particular characteristic; history, visitor, gallery, collection, exhibition, article, new, events. Each provides adequate information for visitor yet does not comply with the museum website characteristic as a proper publication site. There are two major limitations of this study. First, selected museum was only from Jakarta area. Second, analysis was only conducted from the author’s point of view and observation. Thus further research should be conducted for all museums in wider area referring consideration from museum management perspective. This study contributes to the understanding for museum management in better acknowledgement for their website.
Keywords: Characteristic, Museum, Website, Analysis, Museum website in Jakarta, Museum website, Virtual museum, Museum characteristic, Publication, Publication site.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the Internet has had a major impact on consumer information search behavior (Peterson and Merino 2003) and has become one of the most important sources of tourism information (Frías et al. 2012). Since the launch of commercial Internet applications in the early 1990s, many researchers have noted the potential of the World Wide Web in business, and advocated incorporating the Internet into the tourism industry (Burger 1997; Clyde & Landfried 1995 as cited in Page 2013). The World Wide Web is perhaps the most widely known aspect of the Internet. The Web is a distributed but linked information system. The concept of globally hyperlinked information has been established for some time (Reynolds 1997; Futers 1997 as cited in Bowen, Bennet & Johnson 1998). Maintaining an effective website has thus become vital for a business to strengthen its customer relationships and gain a larger market segment (Law, Qi & Buhalis 2009 as cited in Page 2013). The Internet is believed to enhance information processing and consumer decision-making by providing the right information (Choi et al. 2007 as cited in Loncaric, Bašan & Markovic 2013). Since it is common today for tourists to search for information about destinations on the Internet, it can be concluded that it is particularly important to provide information whose content suits the needs of tourists at different stages of planning a trip.
Today, museums and their Web sites are considered as multidisciplinary educational centers that provide information for a variety of cross-curriculum requirements (Kravchyna & Hastings 2002). Museums certainly do need to collect and display information, and the Web is a valuable tool in distributing this to a potentially much wider set of visitors than has previously been possible. If used wisely and sensibly, the Internet is a effective way in which potential visitors can access up-to-date museum-related information conveniently (Bowen, Bennet & Johnson 1998). A positive, complementary relationship between museums and museum websites is extremely important for museum professionals and museum visitors. Museum websites should lure online visitors into the museum’s collections virtually and inspire them to visit the museum in person (Marty 2007). Many museums can now be accessed directly from anywhere in the world via an Internet connection, of course the facilities on offer on-line are different and not of the same quality as the real museum itself. Several advantages might be obtained due to good management of museum website. In any case, it is very important for a museum to think carefully about why it wants or needs a virtual website and what potential benefits this could bring (Strimpel 1995; Fernström & Bannon 1997; Worden 1997 as cited in Bowen, Bennet & Johnson 1998).
Thus, the main objective of this research is to establish various characteristic of information, posted on the museum websites in Jakarta. To accomplish the objective of the study, desk research has been conducted and the results presented in this paper. This study attempts to provide an updated and comprehensive overview of prior communication in tourism publication research that pertains to methodological approaches to website evaluation.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Technology such as the internet has made tourism travel-related service and product easy and placed it within the reach of a new generation (Page 2013). Internet has been the most useful technology of the modern times which helps us not only in our daily lives, but also our personal and professional lives developments. The use of internet is so vast and more broaden through all aspects in people’s live. Internet itself is considered as one of variation in information publication media (Kriyantono 2008, p.251). The internet can be thought of as communication utility that connects all those computers that store all those resources. The World Wide Web (WWW) is the interface to the internet and facilities access to materials in electronic format. (Rubin & Piele 2005, p.75). World Wide Web (WWW) is one from five pricipal system in forms of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), to mentioned others are e-mail, Bulletin Board System (BBS), Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and multiple User Domains (MUDs) (Lindlof & Taylor 2002, p.250).
People who use the internet are attaching their home or office computers to a telecommunications network that consist of billions of computers. When people surf the Net, what they are really accessing is just one portion of the internet known as the World Wide Web (WWW), where most commercial applications reside. Addresses on the web take users to domains, or website owned by individual, commercial profit and non-profit enterprises and government and educational institutions (Tesone 2006). Website is not only as a homepage in digital world but as well as virtual company in a real world (Kriyantono 2008, p.260).
Falk & Louis (as cited in Krisyantono 2008, p.262) said that there are six tips to manage appropriate website in order to perform maximum for the company. First is no dead links. All given links must be active and make sure it can be accessed widely. It is called dead because they do not lead to valid pages anymore and web users are going to get 404 response code (infamous Page Not Found Errors) or other unsuccessful HTTP responses each time trying to access the web pages. Dead links on websites are not just annoying; their existence may cause some real damage to company as well as to company reputation in the. Due to dead link company may lose some of the existing customer base (current or sooner), get problems with getting new customer (because people simply will not find things or pages they are looking for), damage reputation online that furthermore will damage reputation on the real world as well, and have negative impacts on the website ratings in major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Second is availability of contact information. This menu provide customer with basic information required if they want to contact the particular company, such as telephone number, fax number, email address, map, contact or message form. Company might lose the customer because they forgot to put contact details on company website.
Third is information placement. Most of people have reading pattern from the left side to the right side, thus it is very important to allocate more crucial information on the left side on the web pages. Too much content or less content in one page should be avoided. On the other hand website pages must follow a certain layout in order to maintain a theme and uniformity in order to ensure the website consistency. This layout consistency is another key factor because it allows the visitor to find the information needed easier.
Fourth is the use of color. Choosing the right color palette for a site is essential to communicate the message and brand the product especially for online business. Shifting color to another area of the color spectrum can completely change the impact. Visitor demographic also can make a difference in how colors are perceived. Text and background color choices also affect readability, which can be issue for older visitor and those with visual impairments.
Fifth is easy to use, easy to navigate and easy to find. A website that is easy to use is crucial because if the visitor finds it difficult to navigate from one page to another, he or she will get frustrated and leave the website. Attracting frustrated visitors to come back to visit the site is extremely difficult. Most importantly, all menu items are available from any page on the site, so in a couple of clicks, visitors are able to jump to other areas of interest with little effort on their part. Due to the fact that there are millions of websites on the Internet, it becomes important to ensure that website ranks high in search engine results and is easy to find. It also becomes imperative that website must be able to load on any browser, whether that is Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome.
Sixth is a website purpose. Company must acknowledge in what purposes they established their website. It will lead to the quality and information type that provided in the website that eventually shows the way to maximize website potential. Website purposes usually divided into three categories; (1) Presence model, as promotional tools, (2) Informational model, full of content message including press release content for publication, (3) E-Commerce model, as sales and marketing tools.
Main website rules above must be considered for all corporate, including museum. According to Goeldner & Ritchie (2006) and Cooper et al (1998), museums are classified as cultural attraction in tourism. Meanwhile according to Cook, Yale, and Marqua (2010), museums are classified as heritage attraction in tourism. The majority of museum sites are operated on a nonprofit basis, they serve as major tourist attractions, generating important cultural and economic benefits. Cook, Yale, and Marqua (2010) said that today people are attracted by the diverse cultures of other people and the past that are displayed in museums. The list of museum type of extensive but the following list provides some examples of the more common options from which visitors can choose; general, art, history, science, technology, military and natural history. Museum provides a valuable foundation for studying the past and thinking about what the future may hold.
Visiting a museum’s Web site is another way of free learning in the area of art appreciation. Museum digital images can be used for animation, reconstructions, and in other innovative ways to visualize static materials (Kravchyna & Hastings 2002). Once a museum Web site is established, it is good practice to put in place procedures and a budget for the maintenance of the site (Bowen 1999). Previous studies generally agree on the most popular motivations for visiting a museum Web site. They are (in most commson order of popularity) planning a visit, personal interest in the subject matter and or collections, and school assignment (Ockuly 2003; Chadwick et al. 2000; Bowen 1999; Sarraf 1999). Similarly, although focusing specifically on on-line learning activities (mainly on museum Web sites), Schaller et al. (2002) found the top motivators to be assigned by teacher, personal interest and professional interest to use in a lesson plan (Haley & Schaller 2004). While according to Kravchyna & Hastings (2002) they are nine main visitor purposes of visiting museums; (1) to find information on recent exhibits, (2) to search museum collections, (3) to find information on special events, (4) to find directions to museums, (5) to find an appropirate image, (6) to find information on research, (7) to find contact information, (8) to buy gifts online, (9) to buu tickets online. It is worth considering the reasons why a museum might wish to use the Internet for their presence as virtual company representative (Bowen, Bennet & Johnson 1998).
METHODOLOGY
In this study, researchers used a qualitative approach. In fact, studies using qualitative methods often focus only on a partial set of relationships in a scene (Lindlof & Taylor 2002, p.18). Qualitative researchers seek to preserve and analyze the situated form, content and experience of social action, rather than sybject it to mathematical or other formal transformations. Two researches in communication that normally used qualitative research are development communication and the production of content in media organizations (Lindlof & Taylor 2002, p.18). As noted by Kriyantono (2012, p.56), qualitative research aims to explain the deepest phenomenon through in-depth data collection. Researcher is an integral part of the data, meaning that researchers participate actively in determining the type of data which is desired (Kriyantono 2012, p.56). A central issue for qualitative researchers involves defining both online and offline words and the relationship that exist among and between them (Londlof & Satzer 1998; Lyman & Wakeford 1999; Mann & Stewart 2000; Sterne 1999 as cited in Lindlof & Taylor 2002, p. 260).
Researchers used an exploratory research. Exploratory researchers must be creative, open minded and flexible, adopt an investigative stance; and explore all source of information (Neuman 2003, p.29). Exploratory researchers frequently use qualitative techniques for gathering data and they are less wedded to a specific theory or research question. Qualitative research tends to be more open to using a range of evidence and discovering new issues (Neuman 2003, p.29). Goals of exploratory research are (1) become familiar with the basic facts, setting and concerns (2) create a general mental picture or conditions (3) formulate and focus questions for future research (4) generate new ideas, conjectures, or hypotheses (5) determine the feasibility of conducting research (6) develop techniques for measuring and locating future data (Neuman 2003, p.29).
As primary data, this study used the observation. Researchers observed all websites museums in Jakarta. In addition, the researchers also used secondary data. Secondary data is data obtained from the second source or a secondary source (Kriyantono 2012, p.42). In this study, the secondary data was obtained from the literature study and documentation. Researchers conducted a literature study, by using the references that were relevant to this research.
Documentation was done by researchers, especially to observe the studied object. The research objects were the websites of museums in Jakarta. Determined refer to the museum’s websites that were published in the official website of Tourism and Culture of Jakarta Provincial Government at www.jakarta-tourism.go.id which provide listed of all museums in Jakarta area. Then, researchers’ search for the website addresses from all museums mentioned in the official website of Tourism and Culture of Jakarta Provincial Government. Furthermore, researchers conducted the observations for each particular the official websites of the museum which were found.
Data analysis according to Bogdan & Biklen (as cited in Irawan 2007, p.70) is the process of systematically searching and arranging the interview transcripts, field notes, and other materials that you have got, all of which you collect to improve your understanding (the phenomenon) and help you to present your findings to others. In this study, researchers used a domain analysis. According to Bungin (as cited in Kriyantono 2012, p.200), domain analysis technique is used to analyze the images of the object in general research or analyze at the surface level, but relatively intact on the research object. That is, this technique aims to get the whole picture of the research object without having to make the details in detail elements that existed in the integrity of the research object (Kriyantono 2012, p.200). Spradley’s domain analysis formalizes six steps common to most forms of qualitative data analysis. A researcher (1) rereads data notes full of details (2) mentally repackages details into organizing ideas (3) construct new ideas from notes on the subjective meanings or from the researcher’s organizing ideas (4) looks for relationship among ideas and puts them into sets on the basis of logical similarity (5) organizes them into larger groups by comparing and contrasting the sets of ideas and (6) reorganizes and links the group together with broader integrating themes. The process builds up from specifics in the notes to an overall set of logical relationship (Neuman 2003, p.453).
Findings
- Museum’s Website in Jakarta
Based on Official Jakarta Tourism Board website (www.jakarta-tourism.go.id), there are twelve museums that listed as Jakarta tourism object.
Table 1
Museum in Jakarta
| No | Museum | Official website address |
| 1 | Museum Nasional | www.museumnasional.or.id |
| 2 | Museum Tekstil | www.museumtekstiljakarta.com |
| 3 | Museum Taman Prasasti | not available |
| 4 | Museum Sejarah Jakarta | www.museumsejarahjakarta.org |
| 5 | Museum Maritim (Museum Bahari) | www.museumbahari.com |
| 6 | Museum Wayang | www.museumwayang.com |
| 7 | Museum Bank Indonesia | www.bi.go.id |
| 8 | Museum Bank Mandiri | not available |
| 9 | Museum Keramik dan Seni Rupa | not available |
| 10 | Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | www.munasprok.com |
| 11 | Museum Joang 45 | www.museumjoang45.jakarta.go.id |
| 12 | Gedung Arsip Nasional | not available |
Tabel 1 shows the entire museum and their official website. It shows 12 museums in Jakarta Tourism website; 3 have no website, 8 have official website and one (Gedung Arsip Nasional) have website under the same name but comply for different link, it goes to Departemen Gedung Arsip Nasional. Museum Bank Indonesia website is joins with official Bank Indonesia website. To be said, there are only 8 from 12 museums (66.67 %) of Jakarta museum that have their own official website.
- Museum’s website characteristic based on visitor purposes of visiting museum
According to Kravchyna & Hastings (2002) there are nine visitor purposes of visiting museum; (a) to find information on recent exhibits, (b) to search museum collections, (c) to find information on special events, (d) to find directions to museums, (e) to find an appropriate image, (f) to find information on research, (g) to find contact information, (h) to buy gifts online, and (i) to buy tickets online.
(2a) To find information on recent exhibits
Table 2a shows Exhibition and Event menu. This menu provides all information as significant happening or occurrence related to organized presentation and display of a selection of items as well as social and gathering activities with specific outcome. To summarize, there are six museums that provide this menu, but only two that specified displayed.
Table 2a
Exhibitions and Events Menu
| Museum | Exhibition and events |
| Museum Nasional | Current Exhibitions, Upcoming Exhibitions, Events, Lectures & Symposia, Archives & Filmed Footage.
Note: this menu gives information about space for rent |
| Museum Tekstil | Available |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | Available |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | none |
| Museum Wayang | Available menu but cannot be accessed because of bandwidth limit exceeded |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | Equal with Program Menu
Consist of Program of Visitor Group and Special Event Schedule |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | none |
| Museum Joang 45 | Available |
(2b) To search museum collections
Table 2b shows Collection Menu. This menu provides various holding of an museum organized by category as painting, art, sculpture, works on paper, photography, film, clothes, that gathered all together for some purposes or as a results of some process. To summarize, there are six museums that provide this menu, but only two that specified displayed.
Table 2b
Collections Menu
| Museum | Collections |
| Museum Nasional | History, Geography, prehistoric, Numismatik & Ceramic, Etnography, and Archaeology |
| Museum Tekstil | Available menu, but supply no information |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | none |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | Available menu, but supply no information |
| Museum Wayang | Available menu but can not be accessed because of bandwidth limit exceeded |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | Money, Policy, Things, Building |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | Available menu, but supply no information |
| Museum Joang 45 | none |
(2c) To find information on special events
This menu commonly listed and joint together in exhibition and program menu as shown in table 2
(2d) To find directions to museums
Table 2d shows Visit menu. This menu provides information for visitor purposes; operational hours, ticket price, visiting rules and regulations, group info, access, address and other general information related to visitor. To summarize, there are two museums that provide this menu and three museums provide in another similar menu. This menu similarry displayed in contact us menu.
Table 2d
Visit Menu
| Museum | Visit |
| Museum Nasional | Visit, visiting & admission, address (address, map, and access to museum) |
| Museum Tekstil | none
Similar information provided in sub-menu Ticket & Operational Hours and other services |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | none |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | Operating hours, ticket prices, access to the museum, visit the group, facility, and community service |
| Museum Wayang | none
Similar information provided in Information menu (only ticket price and address) |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | none |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | none |
| Museum Joang 45 | none
Similar information provided in Home page |
(2e) To find an appropriate image
Table 2e shows Gallery menu. This menu provides a collection of a picture, typically picture of the museum collection, museum event and exhibition. Gallery menu and collection menu can be displayed under one menu. To summarize, there are three museums that provide this menu.
Table 2e
Gallery Menu
| Museum | Gallery |
| Museum Nasional | none |
| Museum Tekstil | available, but show blank page |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | available |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | none |
| Museum Wayang | none |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | none |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | none |
| Museum Joang 45 | available |
(2f) To find information on research
In term of these purposes, it can be found in several menu; News or Information menu, Article menu, and Statistic User Interface menu.
News or Information menu
Table 2f-1 shows News or Information menu. This menu provides recent and update information related to museum, either previously published in others report or not. To summarize, there are six museums that provide this menu.
Table 2f-1
News or Information Menu
| Museum | News or information |
| Museum Nasional | Update, announcement in general, special event report, workshop, charity event, social activity, national celebration, exhibition, student visit, special visit, study tour, launching new collection, launching new building |
| Museum Tekstil | none |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | Recent post and feature post.
Both sub menu are comply the same information about Jakarta information, launching new building, Betawi culture, another heritage building |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | News (article about ‘Noni Netherland’ and Indonesia Maritime Diversity, latest on 2013)
Events (museum birthday celebration report, fish market fair, international museum day, duta wisata bahari report) Community (provide blank page) |
| Museum Wayang | available
but cannot be accessed |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | Special news (seminar, exhibitions, gathering, celebration number of visitor, festival celebration, anniversary celebration)
Visitor group news (celebration note visitor for particular visit) |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | Museum contest announcement, operational hours and ticket price, access to museum by public transportation, event and activities. |
| Museum Joang 45 | none |
Article menu
Table 2f-2 shows Article menu. This menu provides information about any article related to museum information, broaden from any possible subject. It does similar with news or information menu. To summarize, there are three museums that provide this menu.
Table 2f-2
Article Menu
| Museum | Article |
| Museum Nasional | none |
| Museum Tekstil | available |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | none |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | none |
| Museum Wayang | available |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | none |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | on Homepage |
| Museum Joang 45 | none |
Statistic User Interface menu
Table 2f-3 shows Statistic User Interface menu. This menu provides information about how many people have been visits the particular website by to date number and by total number. To summarize, there are four museums that provide this menu.
Table 2f-3
Statistic User Interface Menu and Members Menu
| Museum | Statistic User Interface |
| Museum Nasional | none |
| Museum Tekstil | none |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | none |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | available |
| Museum Wayang | available |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | none |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | available |
| Museum Joang 45 | available |
(2g) To find contact information
Table 2g shows Contact Us menu. This menu provides general information in order on how to communicate or get in touch with museum. To summarize, there are six museums that provide this menu.
Table 2g
Contact Us Menu
| Museum | Contact us |
| Museum Nasional | message contact form (name, email, phone, message) |
| Museum Tekstil | map and address (complete address, telephone, fax, email address, map with image), send message contact form (name, email, subject, message) and
transportation route (from east-west-south-north Jakarta, by train, by TransJakarta) |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | message contact form (name, email, subject, message)
map with google map view (complete address, telephone) |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | none |
| Museum Wayang | complete address, telephone, fax, email, map with image |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | email, telephone, fax, complete address |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | message contact form (name, email, subject, message) |
| Museum Joang 45 | none |
(2h) To buy gifts online
From researchers observation, there are no museum that provide this menu
(2i) To buy tickets online
From researchers observation, there are no museum that provide this menu
- Good museum’s website characteristic
Falk & Louis said that there are six tips to manage appropriate website in order to perform maximum for the company (as cited in Kriyantono 2008, p.262), (a) no deadlinks, (b) availability of contact information, (c) information placement, (d) the use of color, (e) easy to use, easy to navigate and easy to find, and (f) website purposes. Here is the research finding refers to above theory:
(3a) No dead links
All given links must be active and make sure it can be accessed widely. From sub finding two, it can be seen that there are a lot of dead link for broaden menu.
(3b) Availability of contact information
This menu provide customer with basic information required if they want to contact the particular company, such as telephone number, fax number, email address, map, contact or message form. There are only 2 from 8 museums that do not provide this menu; Museum Maritim and Museum Joang 45 as shown in table 2g.
Table 3b shows Guest Comment menu. This menu is provided as a feedback tools for visitor and museum management. To summarize, there is only one museum that provide this menu, but cannot be accessed because of blank page.
Table 3b
Guest Comment Menu
| Museum | Guest comment |
| Museum Nasional | none |
| Museum Tekstil | none |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | none |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | Available, but blank page |
| Museum Wayang | none |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | none |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | none |
| Museum Joang 45 | none |
(3c) Information placement
Most of people have reading pattern from the left side to the right side, thus it is very important to allocate more crucial information on the left side on the web pages. All museum website do apply this patern.
(3d) The use of color
Choosing the right color palette for a site is essential to communicate the message and brand the product especially for online business. All museum website do apply this patern refer to their own museum theme.
(3e) Easy to use, easy to navigate and easy to find
A website that is easy to use is crucial because if the visitor finds it difficult to navigate from one page to another, he or she will get frustrated and leave the website. Attracting frustrated visitors to come back to visit the site is extremely difficult. Most importantly, all menu items are available from any page on the site, so in a couple of clicks, visitors are able to jump to other areas of interest with little effort on their part. Due to the fact that there are millions of websites on the Internet, it becomes important to ensure that website ranks high in search engine results and is easy to find. It also becomes imperative that website must be able to load on any browser, whether that is Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome. This specific purpose can be acknowledging from several tables; table 3e-1 shows Website Browse Speed; Table 3e-2 shows Search menu, dan Tabel Table 3e-3 shows Connect to menu.
Table 3e-1 shows Website Browse Speed. Each shows different speed quality. To summarize, there are 6 that classified as good, one is classified as a bit slow and one is classified as very slow as it always show bandwidth limit exceeded.
Table 3e-1
Website Browse Speed
| Museum | Browse speed |
| Museum Nasional | Good |
| Museum Tekstil | Good |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | A bit slow |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | Good |
| Museum Wayang | Very slow ‘bandwidth limit exceeded’ |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | Good |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | Good |
| Museum Joang 45 | Good |
Table 3e-2 shows Search menu. This menu allows visitor to process of finding and looking on determining several relevant subject. To summarize, there are five museums that provide this menu.
Table 3e-2
Search Menu
| Museum | Search |
| Museum Nasional | by word typing |
| Museum Tekstil | none |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | by word typing |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | limitation for collection search word typing only |
| Museum Wayang | none |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | by word typing |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | none |
| Museum Joang 45 | by word typing and category |
Table 3e-3 shows Connect to menu. This menu allows museum to directly associate with another organization as joined or linked options. To summarize, there are four museums that provide this menu. Table 3e-3 also shows Partner Website menu. This menu allows museum to establish their partner, who has some degree of involvement, such as government state, distributor, reseller, service provider, in order to obtain direct access to another resources. To summarize, there are two museums that provide this menu.
Table 3e-3
Connect To Menu and Partner Menu
| Museum | Connect to | Partner |
| Museum Nasional | facebook, twitter, online museum communities, youtube and google art project | partner with Ministry of Indonesia Tourism and Economic Creative, Google Art Project and Museum Volkenkunde |
| Museum Tekstil | none | none |
| Museum Sejarah Jakarta | none | none |
| Museum Maritim/ Bahari | Visit Indonesia, Jakarta Government and Webstats | none |
| Museum Wayang | none | main sponsor and premium sponsor, which both cannot be viewed |
| Museum Bank Indonesia | Facebook and Twitter | none |
| Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi | none | none |
| Museum Joang 45 | connect to another 6 museums;
· Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi · Museum Sejarah Jakarta · Museum Nasional · Museum MH Thamrin · Museum RA Kartini · Museum Tekstil Jakarta note: from above six link; three are connecting directly to official website and another three are connecting to Wikipedia |
none |
(3f) Website purposes
Company must acknowledge in what purposes they established their website. It will lead to the quality and information type that provided in the website that eventually shows the way to maximize website potential. Website purposes usually divided into three categories; (1) Presence model, as promotional tools, (2) Informational model, full of content message including press release content for publication, (3) E-Commerce model, as sales and marketing tools. Refer to its content, museum’s website in Jakarta tend to be in the category of presence model and informational model.
DISCUSSION & RESULT
Based on the data observation for all museum website in Jakarta, researchers sort through and make the categories based on domain analysis. Thus researchers come with the conclusion of museum website characteristic which can be classified into 10 main menus; (1) Visit Menu; provide information about admission price, operating hours, museum facilities, address and access to the museum, and also a map of the museum. It will give visitor easy acess to accomodate their general needs. (2) Collections Menu or Gallery Menu; provide. It will add to the attraction for virtual visitors. (3) Exhibition & Events Menu; provide list of museum program of events and activities that have been held and also will be held. It will attempt to enliven the museum not only as a repository of historical objects, but also an exciting place to hold an event program. (4) About the Museum Menu; provide history of the museum, along with the vision and mission, the logo (which describing the identity of the institution), land and buildings, and so on. (5) Contact Us Menu; provide address, telephone, fax, message contact form. It is useful to facilitate visitors and museum management two ways communication. (6) Artikel & News Menu; provide articles and also news related to the museum which were published in the media and collected or displayed. Articles can be in the form of publicity that may be required both for the press and for visitors. It will enrich museum informations. (7) Connect to; provide further disseminate about links that are connected with social media or websites from other institutions. It will advantage for both visitor and the particular link. (8) Statistic User Interface; provide generating data on the number of visitors. (9) Search Here; facilitate visitors to find information quickly without needs to open all links and menus contained in the website. (10) The using of language which is used in the entire museum’s website in Jakarta is Indonesian language. However, there are some websites that provide language choice, such as Indonesian, English and Dutch.
Researchers found there are four museums that do not use the internet as their publication. In fact, by publishing the museum through the Internet, it will open communication and broaden the opprtunities all around the world related to the existence and content of the museum itself. Moreover, the museum is one of tourism object as acknowledge resources for many historical and heritage stories that preserved Indonesian culture. Meanwhile eight museums that established with official website do have some drawbacks. First drawback is (1) website browse speed. There are still some websites that have slow access speed. In fact very slow as well. If website visitors have to deal with slow access, it will certainly make visitors became impatient and have tendency to leave the website. That is one of the reasons why the technical issues related to support of speeds in access, need to be considered as well as website maintenance problems. Second is (2) lack of accesibility. It refers to the links that are existed on the website. Majority of the links do not provide any information, some can not be accessed at all although the sub-menus are given fairly complete. According to Louis & Falk (as cited in Kriyantono 2008, p.262), all links must be active. It is obviously disappointing the user if he found deadlink. Furthermore if it happens continuously, definately will decrease public trust. Third is (3) language issue. All website presented in Indonesian language. There are only three museums that provide optional for foreign language such as English and Dutch. Internet and website do act as communication tools that know no space and time, thus people all around the world able to access the site museum in Indonesia. In order to avoid language barrier to boost international website visitor, optional languange is become a must menu. Fourth is (4) interactivity issue. This is an ability that can be shown through the Internet. There are no signs of interaction between website visitors and museum website management. The only interaction that occurs is through sending email provided in the Contact Us menu, but other visitors can not read the message. If there is available interface that allow visitor to send short messages and also the reciprocal of the manager of the website, it will lead visitors to ask furthermore and finaly of course, a quick response from the museum management.
The results of this research provide museum website characteristic that divided into ten main menus; visit, collection, exhibition and event, about the museum, contact, article and news, connect to, statistic user, search and language. Each museum provides adequate information for each menu yet does not comply with the museum website characteristic as a proper publication site. This study then contribute to the understanding for museum management in better acknowledge for their website considering some existing drawback and realizing the benefit that can be gain for having website as one of their publication site. Museum professionals must understand the characteristics of museum websites that are likely to influence online museum visitors to visit a museum, and ensure their websites employ these characteristics in ways that positively influence their museum’s visitors. Given that the majority of online museum visitors are likely to use the museum’s website to determine whether they want to visit the museum in person, the design, development, and presentation of museum websites is of great importance (Haley & Schaller 2004 as cited in Marty 2007, p.16).
FUTURE RESEARCH
Due to further insight into the issues raised for future study, the author suggest on developing the scope of the research to all museums in wider are such as Indonesia and on investigating what is the impact of museum website characteristic to online visitor behaviour with the consideration from museum management. As mentioned by Ardianto, Komala & Karlinah (2014, p.192) that organizations or companies which are adopting the Internet will get rapid development in the midst of an increasingly heterogeneous society and target audiences which can reap greater. In many ways, the development of Information and Communication Technology has made significant changes including new opportunities that are very significant of progress (Arifianto 2013, p.224). Furthermore, the advantages of online tourism information search include relatively low cost, customized information, ease of product comparison, interactivity, virtual community formation and 24 hours accessibility (Ho et al. 2012; Wang, Head & Arthur 2002 as cited in Loncaric, Bašan & Markovic 2013).
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