The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Website Review

For my website review I looked at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry or OMSI. I found that the website contained a lot of information and was able to be navigated with ease. The first thing that I noticed when I got on the site was the mission statement which is “The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is a scientific, educational, and cultural resource center dedicated to improving the public's understanding of science and technology. OMSI makes science exciting and relevant through exhibits, programs, and experiences that are presented in an entertaining and participatory fashion.” I thought that it was a very well thought out mission statement that was to vague but at the same time would a challenge for any museum. The website in my opinion is well integrated with the mission statement. When of the ideas that they really try to push is making the museum experience entertaining and participatory, which I found that they were able to achieve simply on the website. The website included educational programs for groups, individuals, and teachers which I thought was very important to their mission statement. One interesting thing I found on the website was a program they offer called Science Pub. Science Pub is where people who are interested in a certain topic have the ability to go a to pub and drink and eat while a specialist in a field will present their topic to the pub. I thought that was an interesting way to achieve the public understanding of the mission statement. Other parts of the website that I enjoyed were science experiments that you can do at home. For instance it tells how to make homemade flubber. This is a good way to engage people from a distance and still teach them about science. The events section of the site was also extremely informational for anyone who was interested in a certain topic other than just going to the museum. A museum offering something more than just their exhibits is important to keep their patrons enticed.
Some of the critiques of the site that I can make is the lack of pictures of the actually building. I found it disappointing because the viewer has a vague idea of what the actual place looks like. I personally thought that the background of the website was also a bit boring and that they could have easily changed the colors to make it more appealing to the eye. It would also have been nice if the website would offer a 3-D tour so that a person could become more informed on where to go inside the museum. Overall I think that the website is very representative of what the actual museum is like and is able to aid the viewer.

http://www.omsi.edu/home