UbuWeb

http://www.ubu.com/ (a completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts)

 **How is the archive portal designed? text-based? image-based?** Ubu: completely text-based except for the black white photographs featured in the header and the actual film **What kind of use and users does it seem to invite? those who already know what they're looking for? those who are just exploring?** Ubu: both, the search function is prominently at the top left but the info is organized into what’s new and what’s featured that season **How easy is it to search the archive? how flexible are the search tools?** Ubu: you can search keywords in a small search box, then sort by date, not too detailed **How structured or open is the archive interface? does it guide the user through the collection? does it offer few guided paths for the user?** Ubu: Very open, lots of suggestions on where to go on the homepage, once you go somewhere however it is very limited to the materials you are viewing **How are the primary (archival) materials presented? with lots of context? without any context? are the primary materials manipulable? i.e. zoom in and out? with and without frames?** Ubu: Some context – a few lines to place the work in a certain time period or with a certain artist, not able to manipulate other than play, pause, sound for the video and audio, text is just black letters on white background that you can scroll