Usability Redesign
Recommendations for Website Optimization

by Wenge Wang, Dominique Dorvil, Tawny Tidwell, Sneh Ganjoo

The MetLogo
Design Report
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OVERVIEW

About the Project

Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibition Services (SITES), a division of the Smithsonian Institution, has been creating and managing exhibitions for over 70 years, bringing knowledge, discovery, and experiences to audiences worldwide.The primary goal of our user experience (UX) research is to help SITES improve their website and the experience for their target audience. We conducted several rounds of moderated user testing to identify areas of improvement in the current website and provide actionable recommendations for enhancing the UX. By making the website more intuitive and accessible, we aim to help SITES achieve their mission of bringing the Smithsonian experience to communities around the world.

Date

May 6, 2023

Tools

Figma, Notion, Google Form

My role

My role includes brainstorming user testing scenarios, conducting tests, analyzing collected data, formulating a website improvement recommendation, contributing to the final report's design, and presenting findings to the client.

Problem Statement

SITES is working to increase event bookings and enhance user engagement. Also, log in system creates a hurdle, and the manual booking process through phone calls is slowed down due to a shortage of staff.

OBJECTIVES & GOALS

Develop strategies to increase engagement from the target audience

Streamline the login process for accessing additional exhibitions

METHODOLOGY

Moderated User Testing + RIC Score

After conducting moderated user testing, we used a method called RIC score to prioritize user issues. RIC stands for Reach, Impact, and Confidence. 'Reach' assesses the feature's potential user coverage, 'Impact' gauges the effect on individual users, and 'Confidence' measures our certainty regarding impact and reach assessments.This helped us determine the severity of the issues identified during user testing, so we could focus on the most important ones first. I created an Google Sheet for everyone to document their discovered user issues, and calculated the RIC score. It was a useful tool for helping us improve efficiency to improve the overall user experience.

User Problem Reach Impact Confidence Score
Too much content to read, details like space taken up, secuity etc missing 3 3 3 9
Users find the login frustrating 3 3 3 9
Users didn't notice the price 3 3 3 9
Viewing tour schedule is unclear with the dates and the unresponsive toggle 3 3 3 9
The welcome statement is confusing 3 3 2 8
Post a question button is confusing on what the button will do 3 2 2 7
Content confusion in terms of "running feet", "security type" 2 3 2 7
VIEW FULL LIST

Competitive Analysis

We also included a competitive analysis to verify our findings and ensure that our recommendations were in line with industry best practices. We looked at other museums and programs to gain a better understanding of how they approach user experience and what features and functionalities they offer.

Organization Login Option Contents/ Crates Trucks Staffing Booking
SITES YES YES NO NO YES EMAIL
NatGeo NO YES NO NO NO WEB FORM
AMNH NO NO NO NO NO WEB FORM
BK Museum NO YES NO NO NO EMAIL
VIEW FULL LIST

FINAL OUTPUT

Recommendation 1: Improve Landing Page

Change introduction to be clearer & replace login with call scheduling


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Replace Login with search to facilitate easy exhibition search





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Recommendation 2: Increase Overall Readability





Moving the title down improves readability

By making the title font larger, it draws the user’s eye


Removing the buttons helps keep the user focused on finding the exhibit information

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Recommendation 3: Reorganize Exhibit Page





Crucial scheduling information is easy to jump to on the same page

Users want more media and less text

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Reflection

Takeaway

Presenting our work to the client was a great learning opportunity as well. I learned how to present my work in a clear, concise, and engaging manner. Additionally, I learned how to handle questions and feedback from clients, which is a crucial skill for any researcher.
The feedback we received from SITES team and also from the class was incredibly helpful. It gave me insight into areas where I need to improve, such as using simpler language when presenting technical jargon and use the proper color palette, which will definitely help to improve my future presentations. Overall, this project was a wonderful learning experience that helped me to grow both as a researcher and as a team member.

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