Survey Of 404 Error Pages For Selected Museum Web Sites

The following table gives a summary of 404 error pages for selected Museum Web sites.

A summary of the column headings is given below.

Web Site: Name of college and link to Web site
Tailored 404 Page?: Y if Web site appear to have a tailored 404 page, and does not use the server default
Description: Brief comments on the 404 page
Rating *-****: * - simple 404 page with little, if any branding
** - 404 page with some elements of branding, navigational bars, help information, etc.
*** - sophisticated 404 page which is fully branded and contains navigational bars, help information, etc.
**** - sophisticated 404 page with additional functionality, such as personalisation.
Try It: View the project 404 page

The ratings have an element of subjectivity. To help in interpreting their meaning additional information is given below.

**Table : Explanation Of Ratings**
Rating	Description	Example
-	Server default message.
*	May mention name of the Web site but has little or no branding, navigational bars or help information.
**	Has some elements of branding, navigational bars or help information, but not all.
***	Has all elements of branding, navigational bars and help information.
****	Has all elements of branding, navigational bars and help information. In addition provides additional functionality, such as personalised information, information on referrer field, etc.

**Table 1: 404 Survey Of Web Sites**
	Web Site	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
1	mda	N	Server default	-	Check
2	24hourmuseum	N	Server default		Check
3	Natural History Museum (NHM)	Y	Good example	***	Check
4	National Museum of Science and Industry	-	Redirect to home page		Check
5	Bath Postal Museum	N	Server default		Check
6	American Museum	N	Server default		Check

The information in the table was collected on 11^th August 2003.

Additional Survey

The following table gives details of the Web sites for participants at the workshop.

**Table 2: 404 Survey Of Web Sites**
	Web Site	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
1	Association of Suffolk Museums	Y	Tailored, navigational features. Good example.	***	Check
2	ABL	N	Server default		Check
3	BECTa	Y	Tailored, navigational features. Good example	***	Check

The information in the table was collected on 8^th September 2003.

Notes

Please note the following:

Only the colleges due to attend the workshop have been analysed.
Only the entry points have been analysed.
Only an automated analysis has been carried out.
The online version of this page allows the latest findings to be obtained.

Summary

A summary of the findings is given below.

**Table 2: Summary**
Tailored 404 Page	1	17%
Default 404 Page	5	83%

- Rating	83	69%
* Rating	0	0%
** Rating	0	0%
*** Rating	1	17%
**** Rating	0	0%