The Nat Mobile (2019)
Helping museum guests plan their visit on the go
MUSEUM MOBILE WEBSITE
Summary
This case study focuses on usability evaluation.
I set out to improve the user experience of the San Diego Natural History Museum’s mobile website. To accomplish this I researched the organization to identify the website’s primary business and experience goals. Then I created a usability evaluation and conducted one-on-one testing sessions with representative users. Based on my observations of participant interaction I’ve identified several opportunities for improvement.
Role
User Research
Team
Myself
Introduction
Product being tested
San Diego Natural History Museum (The Nat) mobile website
Product experience goals
Entice users to visit the museum
Supply information to plan their visit
Product business goals
Get people in the door
Sell admission and event tickets
Primary test objectives
Assess effectiveness of navigation
Intuitiveness of layout
Exhibitions Interaction
Events Interaction
Visit Interaction
Secondary test objectives
Assess response to general appearance
Layout
Content
Aesthetics
Process
Research
Product Goals
Product Use
Evaluation
Write Test Script
Recruit Participants
Facilitate Sessions
Analysis
Identify problems
Ideate Solutions
Test Summary
Why test the mobile site?
The Nat’s web analytics gave me insights into how and why people are using their mobile site. The most viewed content was related to planning a museum visit, with more users accessing the site on a mobile device than desktop. Based on these metrics I prioritized evaluating the mobile version of the website, focusing on the features that help users plan their general admission and special event visits.
Evaluation Sessions
The usability evaluation sessions were conducted remotely on Wed, Aug 28 and Sat, Aug 31 with a total of 7 user participants. According to Jakob Nielsen, testing with 7 users (per user group) will uncover about 90% of usability problems in a product.
Participant Summary
Number of participants: 7
Ages: 55-60 (1); 40-45 (1); 27-39 (5)
Gender: Male (3); Female (4)
Participants with children: 3/7
Participants who have visited a museum in the past year: 5/7
Participant web use
Participants had higher than average internet use time. They also reported accessing the internet on a mobile device more than a desktop computer. Their experience gave me confidence that feedback would identify real usability issues with the website.
Evaluation Materials
The materials I used to conduct the usability evaluation sessions included the test script, the test - which was facilitated using Userlytics, and SDNHM.org accessed on participants’ smartphones. The evaluation included 4 parts:
Introduction and background questions:
participants’ age, children, museum visitation, and internet use
Tasks:
3 tasks focused around navigation and visit planning
Post-task questionnaires:
3 questions, rated on 7-point SEQ (single ease-of-use question) scale
Debrief questions:
What is missing or could be improved?
Next steps - how would participants proceed in real life
Findings
Issue Severity Scale
A severity level was assigned to each problem identified based on the following criteria.
High Severity 🔥🔥🔥
A barrier to task accomplishment (prevent user from completing task, or required significant work around)Medium Severity 🔥🔥
A hurdle to task accomplishment (required a work-around, alternative path, or longer time to complete task)Low Severity 🔥
A cosmetic issue related to the interaction details
Task 1
Scenario
You are planning a trip to visit an exhibition at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Task
Determine if you can find the dedicated webpage for the exhibition Coast to Cactus in Southern California.
*partial success indicates that a participant found some information about the exhibition but did not succeed at the task.
Problem (High Severity 🔥🔥🔥)
2 out of 7 participants found a brief description of the exhibition on the “Exhibitions” page, but did not accomplish the task of finding the dedicated exhibition page for Coast to Cactus in Southern California.
The participants who failed didn’t realize that the image and title of the brief descriptions on the “Exhibitions” page were clickable. Once a link is clicked users are directed to the dedicated exhibition page with a full description, exhibition photos, and call to action buttons to buy tickets and become a member.
Solutions
On desktop, the cursor would indicate that the image and title are clickable but on mobile there is no indication. Test adding “Learn More” links to the exhibition descriptions so mobile users know that they are clickable.
Test adding “Buy Tickets” call to action for each exhibition description.
Task 2
Scenario
You are planning a trip to attend an event at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Task
Determine if you can find the dedicated webpage for the event The Secret Society of Adultologists.
*partial success indicates that a participant found some information about the event but did not succeed at the task.
Problem (High Severity🔥🔥🔥)
3 out of 7 participants found a brief description of the event on the “Events” page, but did not accomplish the task of finding the dedicated event page for The Secret Society of Adultologists.
The participants who failed didn’t realize that the image and title of the brief descriptions on the “Events” page were clickable. Once a link is clicked users are directed to the dedicated event page with a full description, event photos, and call to action button to RSVP and buy tickets.
Solutions
On desktop, the cursor would indicate that the image and title are clickable but on mobile there is no indication. Test adding “Learn More” links to the event descriptions so mobile users know that they are clickable.
Test adding “Buy Tickets” call to action for each event description.
Task 3
Scenario
You are planning a trip to the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Task
Find the following information:
Physical address
Hours of operation
General admission ticket cost
Parking availability
*partial success indicates that a participant found some information but did not succeed at the task.
Problem (Medium Severity 🔥🔥)
2 of the 7 participants would have preferred to see the admission price on the homepage. 1 of those participants was not able to find the admission price at all because he never used the ”hamburger” menu to navigate. He did not find the “Hours and Admission” page with the admission pricing and call to action links to “Buy Tickets” and “Become a Member”.
Solutions
Include admission price in the website footer.
Include a “Buy Tickets” link in the website footer.
Post-Test Questionaire
Did you get enough information to plan you visit to the museum?
All participants reported that they did get enough information to plan their visit.
“There was enough information but it could be organized better.”
“Information was adequate.”
“Yes, it was straightforward.”
“Yes, effective and generally easy to use.”
List 2-3 things you would most like to see improved or added.
2 out of 7 participants didn’t have any recommendations for improvements.
“I didn’t see the cafe. This is something I look for when planning a trip.”
“The bright green color is distracting.”
“Include calendar month overview instead of list.”
“Put admission price on the homepage.”
How would you proceed in real life; what would you do next?
Participants were split between buying tickets online or at the museum. Most mentioned using Google Maps to navigate to the museum.
“Buy ticket at museum. Uber to location.”
“Purchase ticket online.”
“Call museum and buy ticket at location.”
“Purchase ticket online. Save address from website to phone.”
Next Steps
The following is a summary of the next steps that I recommend the museum take as soon as possible to improve the usability and overall experience of their mobile website.
Consider replacing the 3 vertical lines “hamburger” menu icon with a button that says “Menu”.
Add “Learn More” and “Buy Tickets” links to exhibition descriptions on the ”Exhibitions” page.
Add “Learn More” and “Buy Tickets” links to event descriptions on the “Events” page.
Add an “Upcoming Events” section to the homepage similar to the “Featured Exhibitions” section.
Add general admission pricing and a “Buy Tickets” link to the website footer.
Add a “Café” section to the homepage with a link to the menu.
Evaluate the online ticket purchasing process.
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TALBOTT & SONS