RealDecoy has enjoyed a successful multi-year partnership with the National Gallery of Canada (the Gallery). We have contributed to all the major web properties of the Gallery, building on our team’s strong understanding of and sensitivity to the arts.
The National Gallery of Canada is one of the world's most respected art institutions, renowned for its exceptional collections, revered for its scholarship, and applauded for its unique ability to engage audiences of all ages and all levels of artistic knowledge. Created in 1880, the Gallery is among the oldest of Canada's national cultural institutions.
RealDecoy rebuilt the National Gallery of Canada’s corporate website to reflect its position as one of the most important galleries in Canada.
THE CHALLENGE
Poor usability
Prior to 2007, the Gallery’s website was difficult to navigate and staff did not have a way to manage content on the site. Each department needed to have the ability to manage content for its section of the site—and be able to do so in an intuitive manner.
Members of the general public had such difficulty using the site that they would instead call the Gallery for simple information such as hours of operation. The Gallery wanted to provide as much for visitors as possible online and minimize such calls.
A massive amount of content
The Gallery had to find an effective method of managing the huge amount of information in for the site, including, as expected with an art gallery, a great deal of images. The content had to be both easy to navigate and find as well as accessible. The Gallery also needed to find a way to manage Flash promotional banners so that they could be updated as needed.
OUR SOLUTION
The Gallery turned to RealDecoy for our firm’s experience in planning and implementing usable websites from the ground up.
Investigating requirements
As part of the initial investigation phase, RealDecoy audited the Gallery site, approximately 8,000 pages in English and French, from a usability and accessibility perspective. As part of this investigation the Gallery wanted RealDecoy to evaluate whether RedDot, the CMS they had already put in place, would be able to meet their needs moving forward.
Our investigation showed that with an upgrade of the CMS to the most current version, some hardware upgrades and the implementation of Live Server, RedDot would be able to meet the Gallery’s needs for the foreseeable future.
A redeveloped site
The site we developed for the Gallery included a robust amount of information about the NGC’s hours of service, admission rates and what galleries were being renovated, among other things.
RealDecoy provided the NGC site with some new functionality, including:
- RealDecoy’s calendar application which allows for the aggregation of multiple web calendars through a central system,
- Integration of a Flash based ‘Plan Your Visit’ tool which included video,
- Adaptation and integration of an Interactive Floor Plan of the Gallery,
- A Flash and HTML timeline history of the Gallery,
- Integration of Verity LiveServer to improve search functionality throughout the site.
A strategic partnership
RealDecoy partnered with bv02 on this project. bv02 planned the interaction of the site and created the overall design of the site and some Flash components.
A good relationship
RealDecoy continued to maintain the NGC website after delivery. We provided assistance and staff training for the RedDot environment, and supported the Gallery’s internal IT department.
In the end, the NGC received a powerful new site with enhanced usability that gives visitors access to a lot of pertinent information.
The National Gallery of Canada Foundation, dedicated to providing the NGC and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography with additional private financial support to preserve and promote Canada’s rich visual arts heritage, was looking to assert its autonomy by launching its own website.
THE CHALLENGE
The Foundation wanted to launch its website quickly however the Gallery was in the midst of developing its corporate site at the time and resources were limited. Additionally, as the corporate site was being developed concurrently, many issues that would affect the Foundation website had not been finalized. Developing the two sites concurrently could have led to issues of divergent approaches for navigation, design and technologies.
OUR SOLUTION
RealDecoy was able to dedicate resources to developing the Foundation’s site while developing the NGC’s Gallery.ca site. By following closely the development of the Gallery site, we were able to leverage our work on the one to inform the other. This meant we required less support from the Foundation’s staff, freeing them up to engage in other tasks essentially developing it in the footsteps of the Gallery site. The site was launched in late 2007.
Cybermuse is a website that introduces students to the world of fine art and provides access to over 10,000 images of art in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada.
THE CHALLENGE
The Gallery needed a website that would provide access to images of artwork and put the artwork in context to aid with communicating the value of the artwork itself. Additionally, the site had to be scalable to allow for the addition of multiple sub-sites, each one focused around an artist or theme.
The Gallery also hoped to develop five new Flash movies related to content on the site while at the same time ensuring that content is accessible to users with special needs or technical limitations.
OUR SOLUTION
RealDecoy developed CyberMuse, a site built using Flash that still offers excellent usability. The site was made accessible by JAWS, an application that reads content on a web page out loud for visually impaired web users. This approach allowed for a much more dynamic approach to content and the inclusion of video and interactive components while still meeting accessibility requirements.
The site features:
- video and audio recordings of world renowned artists
- interpretive and interactive games
- showcases of special events
- a resource centre for teachers
- virtual tours of the NGC, including the Rideau Chapel installation, a centerpiece of the Gallery
The website has been extremely well received by educators across Canada. Schools now actively use the site in classrooms based on their province’s curriculum guidelines.
In 2005, the NCG required a site to showcase over 2000 photographs of renowned Austrian photographer Lisette Model (1901 – 1983).
THE CHALLENGE
The system had to accommodate for the indexing and displaying of a vast collection of photographic images and integrate hours of audio throughout the website.
A particular challenge was that catalogued material, which accompanied the images, needed to be converted into Extensible Markup Language (XML) from Excel spreadsheets. Audio and video downloads had to be delivered using Flash animation as well.
OUR SOLUTION
In partnership with bv02, RealDecoy planned, architected and developed an interactive interface as an extension to the NGC’s CyberMuse educational resource portal that allows website visitors to browse through Model’s photographs by chronology or by collection.
The site contains photographs, letters and other personal documents, including Model’s lauded 1950s Jazz series, which features more than 1,900 images. A prime feature is a chronological timeline of Model’s life along with downloadable audio interview excerpts featuring Model talking about her work. Also included is a video interview with Ann Thomas, the NGC’s Photography Curator, about Model’s importance.
The National Gallery of Canada wanted to implement an online shop that would not only integrate with its gift shop but also allow for the purchase of tickets and memberships.
THE CHALLENGE
An e-commerce system
The NGC needed to implement a bilingual ecommerce system in 2007 that would allow its store to sell all of its products online. The existing POS (Point of Sale) and inventory system had to be tied into the web shop in some manner to prevent products with limited inventories being sold on line when they are sold out in the shop.
And with any eCommerce system the site had to meet stringent security requirements to ensure the protection of visitors personal and financial information.
OUR SOLUTION
New online purchasing abilities
The system that RealDecoy developed not only allows website visitors to shop and pay for memorabilia, souvenirs, tickets and memberships, it also includes a robust suite of administrative tools that allows the web administrator to manage the system, its content and the inventory in the shop.
This included a customized integration with the existing POS system to ensure that inventory levels were tracked across both the physical and virtual shops, ensuring that online visitors would not be ordering products that were no longer available.
