Goals: Test the Usability of the www.whitney.org Include an
Assessment of the Library Sub-site Usability testing: Task List
Screener Software and Equipment Process
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Hours and Information Positive Features o Information presented
in small, quick portions. o Sections separated by graphic dividers
allows the user to quickly find the section they need. o Map in
upper left corner is a quick and useful alternative to standard
directions.
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Hours and Information Possible Improvements o While most
participants instinctively navigated to the Hours and Information
page while attempting to complete task 1, many users had difficulty
indentifying the information needed, even when looking directly at
it. o In the following video, a participant attempts to find
information on pay-what- you-wish admission on the hours and
information page, and never identifies the information.
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Hours and Information Web Page Changes by User, Task 1 o Of the
five users who successfully completed the task, three needed to
change web pages two or fewer times to do so, while the other two
changed web pages eight or more times. o Possible solution: Had the
information been in bold, to differentiate it from the standard
hourly schedule, the information would be much more
identifiable.
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Education and Events: Overview Events Overview Page o
Navigation menu differs in style from many other pages. Example of
inconsistency found within whitney.org. o Text links used to
delineate subject categories instead of graphic dividers. o Long,
narrative descriptions used instead of short, concise, bulleted
descriptions.
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Education and Events: Overview Possible Improvements o Graphic
dividers instead of text. o Pictures used should provide specific
infor- mation to the user about that subject category. o Reduce the
amount of text! Change narrative descriptions to bulleted
descriptions, limit information to most useful for user. o Order
the selections more logically. Daily events at top, weekly events
below, etc.
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Education and Events: Overview Program Descriptions o Testing
in the events page brought to light several potential issues that
noticeably hindered users in completing tasks. o Testers were
unsure of where specific programs should be categorized long,
narrative Program descriptions did nothing to aid this. o Placing a
specific event listing within the Program descriptions while
leaving all other events hidden is also confusing.
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Education and Events: Overview Possible Improvements o A more
concise and descriptive program description could help. A possible
example for Public Programs: Public Programs allow artists,
critics, scholars, and writers to address and discuss topics
pertinent to the Whitney collection with adult audiences. Programs
under this category include: Seminars with Artists series Open
Studio, Afternoons with Artists series Special lectures, seminars,
and events. o Testers also resorted to using the ctrl+F search
function on the programs page, revealing the need for a search box
function, as the evidenced by the following video.
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Education and Events Time on Task by user, Task 5 o Completion
time for task five ranged from slightly more than 40 seconds, to
over 6 minutes. o Two times of more than 5 minutes 20 seconds, and
another of 2 minutes, indicate that the long task times are not
aberrations. o The following video addresses another contributing
factor to the difficulty participants exhibited with task 5.
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Calendar o Problems with the calendar came into play in two
different tasks. o The event that is the objective of task 5 was
not entered into the calendar. Searches by participants turned up
no results. o One participant, who previously failed to locate
information on the Task 5 event in the calendar, chose not to even
try a search for the task 6 event because of his previous lack of
results. o The following video illustrates this incident.
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Library Library Pages o Primary issue is the poor organization
and lack of clarity within the Collection navigation menu. o
Library relevant items are intermingled with items that bear no
relation to the Library. o Recent Acquisition item bears no
connection to the library, but its proximity and title can make the
user believe it does. o 5 out of 6 users who attempted task 11
mistook Recent Acquisitions to be related to library acquisitions;
instead, it addresses art acquisitions exclusively.
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Library Time on Task by user, Task 11 o Of the four
participants who attempted the task, all took more than 70 seconds
to complete the task o Even though WhitneyCat includes an excellent
new Acquisitions search feature, participants invariably looked for
a link in the navigation menus first before heading to
Whitneycat.
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Library Possible Improvements o The single most important
change for the Library would be the establishment of its own
navigation menu heading. o Would greatly clarify every aspect of
the Whitney library. o Possible menu items for the Library menu:
Library Information replaces Library, modeled after Hours and
Information. WhitneyCat Library FAQ would add answers to questions
regarding access, hours, content, etc. Rights and Reproduction New
Acquisitions Search directs to WhitneyCat new Acquisitions
search.
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Whitney Homepage Primary Observations o Poor use of white space
leads to a homepage that is small, cramped, and cluttered. o Site
is designed to work on 800x600 resolutions. Should be updated and
optimized for a larger resolution. o Increasing size will give
potential for better organization and larger font sizes. o Overuse
of greys, dark greys, charcoals, and blacks results in too little
contrast, especially on menus.
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Whitney Homepage Observations Contd o Dark grey menu backing
surrounded by grey stone, grey borders, and high black and grey
content in pictures, and coupled with small text, leads to poor
menu readability. o Exacerbated by long, poorly organized menus.
Menu items often belong on different hierarchical levels of the
site, and jargon is prevalent. o The following video illustrates
the amount of time needed to examine the menu set while looking for
a particular link.
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Difficulty in seeing items on the page Frustration with the
navigation system Hard to find specific events Confusion regarding
library subset
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The Whitney has a good website with great information. A few
strategic enhancements could easily lead to increased traffic and
higher ticket sales.
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Type faces, type sizes, and color combinations re-enforce text
Information presented in concise segments Global navigation Robust
search function Fully functional events calendar