APT 2002 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia : Report

WEBSITE APT 2002 Website Kids’ APT website OVERVIEW The APT 2002 website was a collaborative project involving a wide range of Gallery staff. The informative, engaging and visually appealing site that proved extremely popular with the public. More than 3.5 million hits were recorded during the course of the exhibition, making the APT 2002 website easily the most popular online presentation by the Gallery to date. One of the key factors contributing to its success was the site’s integration into the Gallery’s educational and promotional strategies for the exhibition at an early stage of the project. In addition, the project team was able to build on the experiences gained through the development of the APT3 Virtual Triennial project . ANALYSIS OF WEBSITE ACTIVITY The five months from September 2002 through to the end of January 2003 saw a very significant increase in activity on the Gallery’s website, reflecting widespread public interest in the Asia-Pacific Triennial. The total number of hits on the site from 1 September 2002 until 31 January 2003 was 3,688,976 , while the total number of individual user sessions during the same period was 85,785 . 12-month distribution of activity (in hits) on the QAG website over the last twelve months, clearly indicating the increase in activity during APT 2002. The average number of hits per user session during this period was 43, indicating a relatively high degree of user activity per session. DESIGN The design for the APT 2002 website was developed by the local Brisbane multimedia company, Zone4 Digital Media, working in close cooperation with the Gallery’s own Design section. The result was a functional and visually-appealing design which built on and dovetailed with the key visual design elements of the exhibition, promotional materials and publications design, while also creating a distinct identity for the website itself. The APT 2002 website homepage design Following the completion and approval of the site design, collaboration continued with the Gallery’s design and Promotions sections to ensure that a compatible visual approach to promotion of key APT 2002 programs and events was maintained throughout the duration of the exhibition. An example of this is the use of the Kids’ APT Bug Master logo on the website to promote Kids’ APT programs, including the ‘Summer Spectacular’ festival. The main ‘Kids' APT’ page, featuring ‘Bug Master’ A key navigational element of the site design was the inclusion of a rectangular interactive graphic as both a visual and functional feature on every page, allowing direct access to each of the 17 artists and works sections with a single mouse-click. The graphic features 17 small boxes which, when rolled over with the cursor, highlight the artists name and a detail of one of their works included in the exhibition. 34