Museum Website Nomenclature: 'Visiting'

While working on the information architecture for a museum website I decided to survey other museum sites to see what standard terms are used to describe sections.

The focus here is on visiting information.

I looked at the top 100 websites that matched the term 'museum' in Google.

Results

Position	Website Address	Term
1	http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/	VISIT
2	http://www.nhm.ac.uk/	Visit Us
3	http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/	visiting
4	http://www.vam.ac.uk/	Your Visit
5	http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/	-
6	http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/	-
7	http://www.molg.org.uk/english/	-
8	http://www.nmm.ac.uk/	Visit us
9	http://www.designmuseum.org/	General Information
10	http://www.iwm.org.uk/	OPENING TIMES & VISITOR INFORMATION - ALL BRANCHES
11	http://www.ashmolean.org/	Plan your visit
12	http://www.horniman.ac.uk/	Visiting Us
13	http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/	location
14	http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/	Visits/Museum
15	http://www.freud.org.uk/	[no obvious link, address on the homepage]
16	http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/	[no obvious link, address on the homepage]
17	http://www.soane.org/	MAP & VISITOR INFORMATION
18	http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/	Visiting and Booking
19	http://www.museumofcostume.co.uk/	Planning your visit
20	http://momb.socio-kybernetics.net/	-
21	http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/	Plan Your Visit
22*	http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/NMPFT/	Visitor Information
22*	http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/NMPFT/	Visiting
23	http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/	-
24	http://www.museumjobs.com/	-
25	http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/	-
26	http://www.museum.man.ac.uk/	Information
27	http://www.nrm.org.uk/home/home.asp	visitor information
28	http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/	visiting
29	http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/	Visit Us
30	http://www.theatremuseum.org.uk/default.php	YOUR VISIT
31	http://vlmp.museophile.com/	-
32	http://vmoc.museophile.com/	-
33	http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/	Visiting
34	http://www.nms.ac.uk/royal/home/index.asp	VISITING
35	http://www.nms.ac.uk/nms/home/index.php	-
36	http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/	Visitor Information
37	http://www.msim.org.uk/index.asp?menuid=723	Visiting Us
38	http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html	-
39	http://www.dickensmuseum.com/	Find Us
40	http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/	Your Visit
41	http://www.tate.org.uk/	Visiting Information
42	http://www.kbsm.org/	How to find us
43	http://nobelprize.org/	-
44	http://musedoma.museum/	-
45	http://about.museum/	-
46	http://icom.museum/	-
47	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum	-
48	http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/indexflash.php	VISIT THE MUSEUM
49	http://www.metmuseum.org/	Visitor Information
50	http://www.olympic.org/uk/passion/museum/home_uk.asp	-
51	http://www.warhol.org/	[no obvious link, address on the homepage]
52	http://icom.museum/vlmp/world.html	-
53	http://www.si.edu/	Visitor Information
54	http://www.redcross.org/museum/history/	-
55	http://www.thinker.org/deyoung/index.asp	Visiting the Museum
56	http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/	[couldn't get past the splash page]
57	http://www.textilemuseum.org/	[no obvious link, address on the homepage]
58	http://www.thewalters.org/	PLAN A VISIT
59	http://www.vadm.org/	about the museum > general info
60	http://www.gramonline.org/	[no obvious link, address on the homepage]
61	http://www.smith.edu/artmuseum/	General
62	http://www.fryeart.org/	HOW TO FIND US
63	http://www.robben-island.org.za/	[nothing obvious]
64	http://www.smv.org/	Visit
65	http://www.sjmusart.org/	visit us
66	http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/	[nothing obvious]
67	http://www.wildlifeart.org/Frame_HomePage.cfm	INFO' > 'General Info'
68	http://www.daheshmuseum.org/	VISIT
69	http://www.emuseum.org/	Plan Your Visit
70	http://www.princetonartmuseum.org/	PLAN A VISIT
71	http://www.eiteljorg.org/	Plan Your Visit
72	http://www.weisman.umn.edu/	VISITING
73	http://www.modernart.ie/	Visit IMMA
74	http://www.unionstation.org/kcmuseum.cfm	Visitor Information
75	http://www.wittemuseum.org/	ABOUT THE WITTE
76	http://www.musexpo.com/	-
77	http://www.columbusmuseum.org/	General Info
78	http://www.mcny.org/	VISIT
79	http://www.mexicanmuseum.org/	[nothing obvious]
80	http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/	Museum Information
81	http://www.musee-online.org/	-
82	http://www.tsunami.org/	-
83	http://www.mcn.edu/	-
84	http://www.speedmuseum.org/	PLANNING A VISIT
85	http://www.panhandleplains.org/	Location & Visitor Information
86	http://www.lanl.gov/museum/	Visiting
87	http://artmuseum.msu.edu/	Visitor Info
88	http://www.adventuresci.com/	VISIT
89	http://www.guggenheim.org/	[nothing obvious]
90	http://www.portlandmuseum.org/	visit us
91	http://www.guggenheim.org/new_york_index.shtml	Visit Us
92	http://www.gilcrease.org/index2.html	General Information
93	http://www.lagunaartmuseum.org/	VISIT
94	http://www.ringling.org/	VISITOR INFORMATION
95	http://www.hocm.org/	Visit Us
96	http://www.folkartmuseum.org/	INFORMATION
97	http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/	[nothing obvious]
98	http://www.africanart.org/	General Information
99	http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/musframe.htm	[nothing obvious]
100	http://www.mtn.org/quack/	-

of these 100 sites, 23 were not directly affiliated with a 'real' museum leaving 77 'real' museum sites.

*The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television used 2 terms: Visitor Information and Visiting (and yes they did both point to the same page).

Popular Terms

These 10 terms appeared on at least 2 sites

Term	Frequency
plan(ning) Your Visit	8
visit us	7
visitor Information (including one visitor info)	7
visiting	6
visit	5
your visit	3
general info(rmation)	3
visiting us	2
how to find us	2
information	2

26 terms were only used once.

Similar Terms

Term	Frequency
visit(ing) us	9
visit(ing)	11
Total	20

Conclusion: Use 'Visit Us'

Visiting Us
Visiting
Visit

Notes

Sites That Represent Multiple Venues

The Imperial War Museum and Tate websites represent multiple venus but they still provided a visiting link (in this case 'Opening Times & Visitor Information - All Branches' and 'Visiting Information', respectively). Other sites either didn't represent a physical location (e.g. online museums or sites about museums) these are represented with a dash (-). The Museum of London Group, on the other hand, force the user choose their venue first.

What This Article Doesn't Cover

What Information Should a Visiting Section Include?

This is beyond the scope of this article. I haven't compared the content of visiting pages - only looked at links are names in the navigation. Some sites could use a term like visiting for something completely irrelevant. I have assumed for the sake of this article that this is very unlikely.

User Expectations Vs Encouraging a Standard

A survey among museum visitors could yield contradictory data on what is a good term to use for visiting. I am simply trying to encourage a standard.