Case Study in effective web technology:
Known for its quality of Art, the Huntsville Museum of Art (HMA) realized the need for a website that would showcase their art exhibits and museum services. HMA approached longtime partner Interweave Technologies to provide a website that would be refined yet fun, attractive yet educational – a site that would benefit both the community and HMA employees.
Launched in April of 2011, the new site has provided numerous benefits. For example, in addition to providing information to the community, the new site has enabled HMA employees to be more productive. “Having the class registration online saves me so much time,” says Museum Academy Director Laura Smith, “I will occasionally have people call in to pay, but I point them to the website whenever possible. It frees me up to do so much more.”
HMA employees also have the capability to update the site – a very useful feature, due to the dynamic nature of HMA’s programs. They now can add/edit/delete pages, administer promotions and operate the e-commerce system that manages payment for donations, memberships and classes.
The implementation allows website administrators the freedom to customize the checkout process according to what information is desired. For HMA, this means the checkout forms for honorariums and preschool art classes can be completely different.
“The ability for patrons to be able to give online has provided us with an advantage that our previous website did not,” says museum CFO Debbie Higdon, “and I recommend Interweave to anyone looking to realize true ROI from their website.”
In only nine months, HMA has seen a 300+% increase in online giving over the previous year. The graphs below are plotted with the monthly and combined incomes from the website from 2010 and 2011.