Usability testing
We tested the current version of the prototype by asking users to complete a series of tasks. This test was carried out with users who had not previously seen the prototype so had no preconceived ideas or knowledge of it. We followed the testing methodology recommended by Steve Krug in his book Rocket Surgery Made Easy.
User Tasks / Questions
The following four tasks were used as the basis of the test:
How would you go about planning a trip to the museum?
Find an event you’d like to take your family to.
You want to hire a room for a meeting (or other event of your choice). Can Derby Museums can accommodate your request?
You’re thinking about making a donation. Can you find out how your money might be used?
Feedback
This test was carried out with three users. Feedback is therefore qualitative rather than quantitative. Feedback has been grouped by subject/site functionality.
General
User confused by seeing the same picture used in multiple places. e.g. for Museum locations, events and exhibitions. Example: It is not immediately clear when clicking from ‘Our museums’ to ‘Derby Museum & Art Gallery’ that the page has changed.
User questioned the title of the Learning section: “Should this include information about Adult learning? If not it should be called Education”
It was noted that museum opening times should be included on the three ‘Plan your visit’ pages
Issues with white space at bottom of pages (IE11 bug)
What’s on
Users thought tags (children, adults etc) on event listings were links (and that clicking them would give event specific info for children, families etc)
Users didn’t notice the distinction between exhibitions and events when clicking from What’s on page
User wasn’t sure how to find the location of the museum site from the individual event page
User wanted contact information displayed on individual event page: “I’ve clicked on Hansons Valuation Day and I’d want to email them to ask how many items I can bring. I would just not go if I couldn’t email and ask.”
User was surprised to learn that they couldn’t filter What’s On page by tags (children, families etc)
User didn’t notice the ‘Share this by email’ window open up as their small screen meant it opened offscreen.
Venue hire
Users were pleased that Venue hire index listed capacity but…
Were confused by its implementation in individual pages: “Board room 18… what does that mean? Is that a different room? Is Theatre a different room?”
Users wanted a price guide on the individual venue hire pages. They indicated that without this they may not get in touch.
Users wanted contact info on individual venue hire pages: “I’d like a form that I could fill in rather than phoning up. I hate phoning people and it’s surprisingly common when trying to book things.”
Donations
User struggled to find information: “I’m trying to find out about the work they do and I can’t find it. Clicked on ‘Join our Patron Scheme’ and that’s just about regular donations. It doesn’t say what they do with the money. I clicked on Community and it says ‘Help us raise money for our super Saturday families’. What’s that? I don’t know what that means. I think if you donate you get access to events and things. But I can’t find the information. Normally you’d see if they’re raising money for something specific. Maybe they don’t do conservation work?”
Another user found the information about what donations pay for on the Donation page itself but commented: “It would be good if they say what they’ll do with smaller donations. I might not have £25 to give and it’d be good to know if it would help.”
Suggested updates
From these tests there are some clear recommendations:
Reuse of images should be avoided. Especially where there is a strong likelihood of the two pages being seen sequentially (e.g. Our Museums -> Derby Museum and Art Gallery).
Opening times will be included on Plan Your Visit pages.
Make event audience tags (children, adults etc) links. These links could either go to the specific event page or an index of events which have the specified tag. Further testing would be required to make sure the chosen option matched user expectation.
A stronger division will be created visually between events and exhibitions on the What’s On page.
A link will to Plan Your Visit pages will be included on individual event pages
Look into possibilities for making ‘Share this by email’ more obvious when selected
Reword capacity information on individual venue hire pages to make it clearer that this refers to different setups of the same room
Add a price guide to individual venue hire pages. This could be as simple as ‘Hire of this room starts from £XX’
Add CTA to individual venue hire pages
Add a page called ‘How your donations help’ to support section
