Enhancing The User's Browsing Feasibility on the Georgia O'Keeffe's Online Collections Website
project overview
This report aims to assess the usability of the desktop version of The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Collections website and address any key concerns that may bring confusion to its users. Our team has conducted eight, remote, Moderated User Tests (MUT) using a series of six tasks to complete by navigating the website. The tests we conducted have provided great insights into the various usability problems that were encountered.
methodology
Moderated Usability Test
team
Victoria Haber
Akshata Karekar
Jolie Leung
Tanisha Razdan
OUR CLIENT
their goals
Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, recognized for her contribution to modern art. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Collections Online website is the largest source of O’Keeffe’s artwork, personal artifacts, photographs, home and belonging items, her correspondences as well as her collection of books and letters. The items documented on this website provide an in-depth context for understanding her art, life, and relationships. The website is categorized into various categories such as artwork, artist materials, archives, books and artist possessions, as well as people and organizations the artist was affiliated with. The website facilitates the search of these items through a filter and sorting section with a comprehensive “About” page on how to browse the repository.
OUR EVALUATION GOALS
general usability
filter options
Evaluation of the effectiveness of the filter options for collections page.
artwork pages
Evaluation of the information discoverability on artworks page of the website.
Evaluation of the overall navigation ease of the website.
OUR PROCESS
met with client and
prepared the MUT procedure
recruited participants
designed tasks
performed tests and
recorded findings
analyzed findings and
provided recommendations
proposed new
recommendations
to client for feedback
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METHODOLOGY
the moderated user testing
The usability of a website is a very important factor because if a user cannot understand how the website is used or where they might find information they are looking for, it can likely turn the user away from the website. In a usability test, a group of assessors build tasks that test certain aspects of a given website. Participants are recruited to try and complete these tasks while being monitored by a usability expert.
In order to build this report, our team has conducted eight Moderated User Tests on the desktop version of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Collections Online website.
pre test questionnaire
to gauge the technology usage levels and experience with archival materials of our participants.
tasks
designed to assess the usability of specific areas of the website.
post test questionnaire
designed to assess the usability of specific areas of the website.
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OUR PARTICIPANTS
how we picked our participants
Our pool of participants consisted of a mix between researchers from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and individuals unaffiliated with the museum in various occupations including students, educators, and working professionals. We screened potential participants with two broad questions regarding their interest in art and their familiarity with art museums in order to capture a wide range of people who could potentially use the website, while still addressing the target audience. As shown below, 62.5% of participants were between the ages of 25 to 40, while 37.5% were 41 and older.
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DESIGNING TASKS
merging client goals into tasks
To conduct our usability evaluation, we recruited participants to analyze their interaction with the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collections Online website. As a team of four, we each observed and moderated two user tests. All tests were conducted on Zoom. With the help of Zoom’s built in audio and video feature, we were able to record the users and their screens as they were interacting with Georgia O'Keeffe's Collections Online website. Users were given the following scenarios and tasks to finish on their desktop devices:
Scenario:Imagine you are interested in writing a research paper on the life and works of Georgia O’Keeffe, and want to use the collections website to find out more about her and examples of her work.
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Find out what year O’Keeffe moved to New York.
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Find the earliest dated letter from Georgia O'Keeffe to her husband Alfred Stieglitz
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Find the oil painting of a pink flower from the 1950s and where it was retrieved from.
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Find the most recent book that Georgia O’Keeffe’s added to her library and a description of it.
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Find the artwork, “Abstraction, Seaweed and Water” and locate an artifact the artwork could have been inspired from.
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What type of animal is most common in her bone collection?
After user testing was complete, as a team, we compiled the usability issues encountered across all of our participants for analysis. We were able to organize all of our data into session notes outlinings how each user interacted with the website for a given task. We recorded observations during each task, thoughts participants had while thinking aloud, and general critiques of the website, which helped us understand where the users encountered the most problems while interacting with the website,
4
INSIGHTS WE COLLECTED
usability problems =
design opportunities
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Collections website offers users a unique opportunity to browse a vast collection of her artwork, personal objects, photographs, books, and records of her correspondences. The participants really enjoyed the ability to use the platform and see all of Georgia O’Keeffe’s items and artworks and how extensive the collection was.
Many of our participants also really enjoyed viewing photographs of her. Most participants were able to find the information requested in the tasks by using some combination of the existing filters and the comprehensive search bar, but other tasks asking about specific details of a piece or object were challenging to other participants.
Based on our moderated user tests, our team has identified 17 unique issues that we categorized on a miro board below.
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USABILITY ISSUES --> RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS
usability issue 1:
solution1:
Users misinterpreted the “about” section on the navigation bar as a link that led to the biography of Georgia O'Keeffe's life when the about section links to a page that highlights instructions on how to use this collection website.
“ I thought when I clicked on “about” I would find more personal information about her, but it seems more about the collections which was unexpected.”
We recommend that the title of the button on the navigation bar that leads to the “about” page change to “About the online collections” as an indicator that this page is not about the artist herself, but information about how to access, use and navigate this collections website.
usability issue 2:
solution 2:
Too many options in the filter bar for “materials” & users had to click into multiple different filters to find the correct one in order to find a specific painting.
Breaking this up into two different filters, one for media and one for materials. The media filter will just include, “Charcoal, Graphite, Oil paint, Pen, Pastel, Photography, Pencil, Watercolor, & Various media” while the Material filter will include, “Paper, Wood, Cardboard, Canvas, Print, & Various”.
the events page
usability issue 3:
solution 3a:
Many of our users found it difficult to read and understand the specific artwork page. It was overwhelming for them and there was a lot of unnecessary text being displayed. Four of our users were wondering why there were two different tabs being displayed under the artwork piece.
Only the image description beside the image of the artwork in order to make the users understand the relationship and context of the archive, painting or artwork of any kind.
solution 3b:
Adding a drop down and moving the technical details. Change in the placement of technical details of the artwork so as to avoid confusion in any manner. Categorizing the artwork details into drop down options.
solution 3c:
Adding Filters To Related Artwork.
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Changing the title to “Related Artwork”. Further refined into two filters.
Change Title & Adding Sub-Heading.
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Change in title of ‘Exhibition’ to ‘Related Exhibitions’ is recommended to emphasize the relationship of the artwork to the exhibits.
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Also provides a sense of visual hierarchy.
usability issue 4:
solution 4:
While conducting our MUT we found that 25% of our participants were over the age of 55 and had a more difficult time reading and finding information.
We decided to add a new feature that supports the accessibility of learning about a specific piece of artwork. This way people who have difficulty navigating the website or people of an older generation can easily listen to an audio recording that tells them about a piece of art without having to navigate throughout the page.
usability issue 5:
solution 5:
Users felt frustrated they “could not find information easily”, that information was “challenging to locate”, and that “in a lot of places the structure didn’t make sense”
Introduce a “Recently Viewed” bar and “Saved Items” feature to keep track of viewing history.
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CONCLUSION
pitching to our client:
While the Georgia O’Keeffe Collections Online website does an excellent job displaying O’Keeffe’s artwork, photos and miscellaneous items, the results from our moderated user tests have revealed that there is room for improvement to enhance the experience each person has using the website.
These recommendations we have provided are backed by testing potential users and we feel confident that the solutions we have provided will improve the experience of navigating the website for any given user.
Upon pitching to our client, our recommendations were taken very positively. The client recognized the value of our findings and identified issues and was very impressed with our solutions.
