Case study: ZOOM Children's Museum

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Design und realization of the website for adults and linkage of flash animations to the content management system

Tasks:

In order to provide private visitors and groups of children from schools and kindergartens with an overall view of the various activities and possibilities that the ZOOM Children's Museum has to offer, a separate subwebsite was necessary. In the interests of maintaining the highest possible educational value, the number of children that can take part at any one time is limited, which meant that a calendar of events and an online booking system were also required. Both of these must be easy to use and maintain for the ZOOM team.
On the children's website, on the other hand, there are a large number of flash animations and games offering a taste of the ZOOM Children's Museum. Texts, pictures and links encourage children to be creative and try out a wide variety of activities. Making these easy to edit was another of the tasks to be performed.

Solutions:

Along with a detailed presentation of various activities offered in the ZOOM Children's Museum, there are two separate sections where groups and private visitors can book online. A simple, self-explanatory calendar function shows coloured blocks arranged under each of the rooms. Clicking on one of these blocks shows detailed information on the event selected (recommended age group, times etc.) as well as a booking form which can be filled in (also with the number and ages of the children etc.).

The booking inquiry appears automatically in the content management system JART 3.0 as a set of data that can now be processed and maintained. An email confirming the booking or stating that the request cannot be met can be sent directly from the system and every inquiry is automatically marked accordingly.
The calendar/programme, list of events, allocation of rooms and ages of participating children (incl. different colourings to make it easier to find what you need) can be maintained in the same content management system, as can comments in the visitors' book and all the rest of the content of the adults' website.

In addition CMS JART 3.0 makes constant updating of the flash animations on the children's website possible.
In a virtual library new books can be added and given titles and a position on the shelves. The page content (texts, links) can also be added using the content management system and can be adjusted to suit using a preview function.
The virtual workshop can also be maintained in the same way. The instructions in the introduction can be edited, as can a series of boxes containing different materials and subjects for experiments. The pictures in the virtual gallery can also be hung up and taken down using the content management system.
Lastly, there is a small flash animation with photos of the ZOOM Children's Museum and current events. These, too, can be changed quickly and easily.
Link: http://www.kindermuseum.at/