Design Museum of Chicago
Role: UX Designer
Time frame: March 2019
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Audit and improve the Design Museum of Chicago's website performance and usability in order to better align web presence with mission and goal. This project was apart of the week long 2019 alternative spring break (ASB) program.
The Challenge
The goal of this project is to increase website traffic, create a more seamless user experience, and ultimately, allow for a greater number of donations made through the website.
The Timeline
Day 1
Full-scope audit of website noting interaction flow and identifying potential problem areas
Day 2
We met with our client to review the initial problem areas found from day 1 to gain insights and to find out if there were any additional focus areas.
We also conducted a review of the Google Analytics data to see what the data indicated and compared it to our initial findings.
Day 3
We continued our data review and conducted a competitive analysis of the website to see best practices and and how museums present themselves online.
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Developed initial concepts for the website redesign and began wireframing.
Day 4
Created wireframes of the old site to use as comparison in our report. We completed wireframes for the entire website redesign and a hi-fidelity mockup of the homepage.
The Process
Competitive Analysis
Data Analytics
Interviews
Wireframing
Prototyping
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Focus Areas
Information Hierarchy
The priority of the content on each webpage is unclear
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Content Presentation
Content on the website does not communicate well to users​
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Links
Links are not always intuitive and may not open content as expected
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Styling
Ensuring that UI elements and styling are consistent throughout the website
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Day 5
Completed the wireframes and presented our findings to our client. In addition to the website design wireframes and mockup, we provided our client with a guide that prioritized items in which they should resolve soonest.
The Solution
Over the course of five days, we designed a new website that would better support the new mission and values of the Design Museum. We provided wireframes for the entire website, to include: exhibitions, events, donations, shop, support, about, and rentals. We produced a hi-fidelity mockup of the homepage.
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Design Rationale
Original Home page
Home page
The homepage presented many challenges due to the fact that the museum had two separate gallery location and hours. The original site did not communicate this well, so we prioritized this information in the redesign.
From the Google Analytics data, we found that users are interested in learning about the museum, so we made sure to include that as well as information about the newsletter and membership.
Redesign Home page
Original Support page
Support Page
The new support page emphasizes the value and benefits of donating and becoming a member of the museum through use of text and imagery. We wanted to demonstrate and show users the impact of their donation and utilized a slider to show donation amount. The previous support page had amounts and set donation amounts under each impact statement.
Redesign Support page
Shop & Product Details Page
Due to differences in where products/merchandise are advertised and shipped from, we wanted to provide users with a clear way of knowing where they could purchase their item. We also wanted to show off the product by including more images and product views. Data and insights indicated that users were viewing the shop page, but were not necessarily going through with the purchase.
Rentals Page
To better communicate with users about being able to rent out space at the gallery we suggested that the museum change the images to intince customers. We also recommended that they show more views and specs of the gallery space.
About Page
The about page had a lot of traffic, which indicated that users were interested in learning more about the museum. We included a "Who we are" feature on the homepage, and kept the about page for users that wanted to take a deeper dive.
Other Items
We also provided a recommendation guide of action items from high to low priority as they relate to UI elements on the website.