Distant past meets digital present

What springs to mind when you think of the behind-the-scenes operations at Britain’s largest museums? Ancient artefacts packed into giant containers? Serious types sitting in musty rooms? Armies of volunteers who are well-meaning but resistant to change?

Of course, these are all exaggerated stereotypes and, if the digital team from the Victoria & Albert Museum is anything to go by, this picture couldn’t be further from the truth.

At MCG's recent 'Strategically Digital' conference, the digital gurus from the V&A revealed what's really going on in the back rooms of this esteemed institution.

These organisations aren’t just about curating stuff and keeping it. They have to show it off to as many people as possible.

So, like all organisations – not-for-profit or otherwise – museums are adapting to the challenges of the 21st century and this means embracing the digital age.

But this isn’t just about developing a website and checking it works on a smartphone. It’s much more fundamental than that.

Taking back control

For the V&A, the decision to put digital first has meant an entire review of their content creation and digital processes. With tongue slightly in cheek, Andrew Lewis, Digital Content Delivery Manager, explains why:

“We’ve lots of departments and everyone was working in their own little silos. Every organisation experiences this, even the small ones.

“One of the things that happens with lots of silos is that, apart from the normal budget, everyone finds little pots of money to do interesting things with that no one else knows about.

“Then you get these incredible ideas that pop up all over the place and then, occasionally, you get a really big idea – or a small idea by a very important person – that dominates everything.

“And, of course, everyone’s involved in partnerships and promising all sorts of things before finding out whether the technology has any real life in it...

“...Then these other different technologies like the iPad pop up and suddenly people are working on different pieces of content, such as films that have been commissioned that turn out to be on the same subject...

“And then you’re told ‘it’s a bright idea and you have to get it done by next Thursday’…"

And so on and so forth.

In other words, the museum’s digital content and its output was growing dangerously out of control, which, as Andrew rightly points out, is not a problem peculiar to the V&A.

Does that sound all too familiar?

An audit of the website was conducted – something Andrew strongly recommends – and the decision was taken to treat content creation separately from delivery. At least 50 legacy microsites were closed down, along with more than 100 legacy interactives.

In March 2012, the new governance for digital processes was agreed. This fundamental shift meant that everyone in the organisation had to work within new strategic guidelines.

Three months later, the new Trustee’s Technology Strategy Committee held its first meeting. This group of critical, but tech-savvy, friends who 'get digital' are the driving force behind the museum's 'Digital FuturePlan'.

The V&A has recently created a free app which contains a calendar to exhibitions, displays and other information, launched blog-fed newsfeeds and migrated the main (CMS) content management system to the Cloud.

Your flexible friends

One of the biggest shifts for the V&A has been the prioritisation of mobile. Around 40% of all visits to the museum’s website come from a mobile device. It has doubled within a year.

“We’ve gone mobile first,” states Andrew. “This means that if what we do doesn’t work on the mobile then it probably doesn’t happen. We get it to work on the mobile first and then on other things afterwards.”

Global growth patterns for mobile over the past three years are comparable to those of the internet circa 2000. The message to all is clear: Responsive design is the goal and brands must have a mobile strategy.

And according to Andrew’s colleague Richard Barrett-Small, lead developer at the V&A, the digital approach has to be iterative and flexible.

“We know that five-year plans in software don’t work, even 18 months is fundamentally flawed. So, we need to be iterative within this cascade of museum business.

“We developers need to flex within the needs of the museum. We need a strong and credible voice and we need to be taken seriously – we’re not just the grumpy nerd down the corridor anymore.”

Digital lessons from the V&A Museum

1. Have clear governance and processes.
2. Mobile first.
3. Review and audit.
4. Define product lifespans – everything stops working eventually!
5. Less is more – don’t over-engineer.
6. Use open data-driven as default.
7. Build iteratively.
8. Measure, test, measure, test.
9. Review and choose technologies that allow you to change your mind.
10. Change your mind – if something’s not working, drop it.

The slides from these presentations can be viewed here.