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MOBILE WEBSITE CASE STUDY

ATLANTA HISTORY CENTER

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PROJECT DETAILS

 

Challenge: Work as a team to design a new feature or product for the Atlanta History Center in order to meet a business goal.

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Role: UX/UI Designer

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Timeline: Dec 5 - Dec 18, 2019

CONTRIBUTION

 

Project Plan

Contextual Inquiry/Site Visit

Screener Survey

Affinity Mapping

Guerrilla Survey

Comparative Analysis

Information Architecture

Usability Testing

Design Studio

Second Iteration Prototype

Style Guide

Mock Ups

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TOOLS

 

Whiteboard and Markers

Google Forms

GlooMaps

Sketch

InVision

THE TEAM

 

Robert Kashey

Kate Mitchell

Danny Nam

PROJECT OVERVIEW

For this case study I collaborated with other UX students to reinvent the digital presence of The Atlanta History Center (AHC).* We had two weeks to develop a prototype that met the discovered goals of the business and users.

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The Atlanta History Center is located in one of Atlanta's most vibrant neighborhoods where the stories, mysteries, and crusades of our region thrive. The 33-acre experience features award-winning exhibitions, historic houses, enchanting gardens, interactive activities, and a variety of year-round adult and family programs.

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*I am in no way affiliated with The Atlanta History Center.

PROJECT GOALS

 

  • Maintain consistency with the existing brand

  • Create a new feature or product for the Atlanta History Center

  • Create and follow a project plan

  • Work effectively as a team

PERSONAL GOALS

 

  • Understand process of creating a project plan

  • Be a reliable thought partner

  • Think about the similarities and differences between Adobe XD and Sketch

Research

  • Contextual Inquiry

  • Screener Survey

  • User Interviews

  • Guerrilla Testing

  • Competitive Analysis

  • Comparative Analysis

  • Usability Testing

Synthesis

  • Affinity Mapping

  • Persona

  • User Flow

  • Information Architecture

  • Design Studio

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Design

  • Mobile Wireframes

  • First Iteration Prototype

  • Second Iteration Prototype

  • Style Guide

  • Mock Ups

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CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY

To learn more about AHC and its offerings my team and I did a site visit. I attended the Cyclorama show and visited the main museum gallery, the farm, and the Swan House. I spoke with several employees about their experience, and asked for information about the various campuses, visitor offerings, and AHC's digital presence. Through my conversations, I learned that the online ticket process had room for improvement, that the majority of visitors did not know about the multiple AHC locations, and that most returning visitors were older Atlanta natives.

KEY FINDINGS

Only 30% of our customers buy their tickets online; a lot of them call and ask why they can’t buy them online the day of, and I tell them, ‘come in and we’ll take care of you.’

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Heather

Now that the Cyclorama is here, it’s the biggest attraction on our main campus.

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Adrienne

Most people who visit us [The Swan House] are Atlanta locals. It’s more of an older crowd. They come for the nostalgia.

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Swan House Actor

SURVEYS

To learn more about the existing and potential audience of AHC, we sent out a screener survey of 10 questions via social media. Our goal was to discover which Atlanta attractions people visit and why. Following the survey, the team interviewed four respondents to gain more insight on their experiences and preferences.

*Percentages shown in the bar chart may slightly different as one of the 60 respondents submitted the survey twice.

AFFINITY MAPPING

Affinity mapping helped me sort through all of the information gathered during the interviews. I focused on using qualitative data to sort the information in to different themes.

KEY FINDINGS OF SYNTHESIS

  • Most users visit Atlanta attractions for the exhibits

  • Learning opportunities ranked second and photo opportunities ranked third for reasons to visit attractions

  • Events ranked fourth for reasons to visit attractions

  • 60% of respondents purchased tickets online

“I visit museum sites to get information on ticket pricing, and would buy in advance if it was for a specific event or if tickets were limited."

PERSONA

Persona.jpg

TRACY


Age: 39

Location: Atlanta, GA

Occupation: Event Planner

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Tracy is an event planner who has lived in East Atlanta for about 10 years. She enjoys exploring new restaurants and historical attractions around town in her free time. Her two young nephews are visiting during their holiday break and Tracy wants to take them to a fun Atlanta attraction. She's heard that the Cyclorama has reopened after undergoing restoration and wants to purchase tickets for herself and her nephews.

Based on site interviews, visitors’ general lack of knowledge of AHC and its offerings is a problem that Marketing would need to address.​

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Our team agreed that this problem could not be solved through a UX approach, but we kept this in mind when designing our wireframes.

We decided to focus our UX efforts on these findings.

The UX team will focus on the ticket purchase experience and the ability of users to find information on events and exhibits.

Focusing on the digital experience, our research showed that visitors go to Atlanta attractions for events and exhibits. They prefer to go with friends and family, and the majority buy their tickets online before going.

SO WHAT AM I SOLVING WITH THE UX PROCESS?

GUERRILLA SURVEY

In order to research other companies to create the Competitive and Comparative Analyses we had to choose a digital platform to test and design for. We realized that we didn't ask people about the devices they use when trying to find attraction information and purchase tickets online in our user survey, meaning we wouldn't be able to back up a platform choice with research. We agreed that guerrilla surveying would be an efficient method of gathering this data. We asked 30 people the following two questions:

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1. If you were looking for more information on an attraction/event that you were interested in, which would you use?

Phone/Mobile or Desktop

2. If you were buying tickets for an Atlanta attraction which would you use?

Phone/Mobile or Desktop

COMPETITIVE AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSES

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Comparative Analysis chart.png

KEY FINDINGS

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

 

  • No “one right way” to purchase tickets

  • Three websites had calls to action to purchase tickets on the home page

  • Important to make finding information and purchasing tickets easy

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

 

  • Fewer clicks to checkout preferred (i.e. 3-5 max)

  • Checkout process has progress indicator

  • Guest checkout process can be simplified

KEY FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS

Based on our research, we agreed that the key features and functions for our mobile website should be the following:

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  • Improve the visibility of exhibit information on home page

  • Clear call to action button to purchase tickets

  • Improve the information architecture of the checkout process

USER FLOW AND INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

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WIREFRAMES AND PROTOTYPE

ITERATION 1

After determining the user flow and information architecture we all participated in design studio. We drew layouts for each page on a whiteboard and used the finalized versions as templates for the wireframes and prototype, which we created in Sketch and InVision.

USER TESTING

I tested the first iteration prototype with three people. I asked each tester to purchase one adult and two child tickets for the Cyclorama for 1:00 on December 18. After the third person I stopped testing because the testers all provided similar feedback.

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  • Users didn’t know enough about the cyclorama to find it under exhibits

  • Users assumed they could click on the cyclorama show times to take them to the ticketing page

  • Users frustrated over not being able to review their inputs before going to next page of checkout process

  • Lack of confirmation screen after purchase

KEY FINDINGS

““Is Cyclorama included or is it a separate charge?"

WIREFRAMES AND PROTOTYPE

ITERATION 2

The major changes we made to our second iteration prototype included removing the static ticket button, folding the FAQ section into "Our Locations" on the home page, adding times to the ticket page, and adding an "order received" page.

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I sent text copy to one of my teammates to include in the updates, then he sent the Sketch file to me for final touches. I added a checkout process bar and standardized all of the fonts, spacing, and button sizes to insure that the second iteration prototype was clean and easy to navigate.

STYLE GUIDE AND MOCK UPS

I was elected by my team to design the style guide and create the mock ups because of my background in graphic design. The basic style guide below was inspired by the existing style guide for The Atlanta History Center, as well as by images on the existing website.

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© 2019 by Meghan D Joyce.

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