CASE STUDY 02
RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN: THE MUSEUM MARKETPLACE
role
Product Designer (UX/UI)
Generalist: User Research | Interaction Design | Visual Design | Information Architecture | Equity-Focused
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User Research
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Personas
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User Journey Maps
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Storyboarding
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User Flows
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Wireframing
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Lo-fi Prototyping
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Research Plans
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Usability Studies
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Affinity Diagramming
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Mockups
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Hi-fi Prototyping
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Accessibility & WCAG Compliance
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Design Systems (style guide)
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Stakeholder Presentations
responsibilities
BUSINESS PROBLEM STATEMENT
Marketplace is an e-commerce platform for the arts sector that wants to develop a digital marketplace that will streamline the purchasing of museum tickets for visitors, so that it can modernize and streamline the process of searching for and purchasing tickets for museums and art exhibits world wide.
THE PRODUCT
Museum Marketplace is a new e-commerce "marketplace" for museum visitors to access information about the museums and art exhibits they wish to attend while visiting a city, and to purchase tickets for multiple museums and exhibits all in one place, for a one-time total payment upon checkout. (primary devices: Desktop and Smartphone)
Vacationers and local art enthusiasts need a quick and easy online experience to explore and purchase museum tickets in the cities they are visiting or living within because the current alternatives are very time consuming and frustrating, and do not provide everything all in one place; which causes issues regarding planning, tracking total costs, awareness of scheduling conflicts, and generating a complete itinerary.
Museum Marketplace will allow users to explore multiple museums and purchase tickets through one portal, while also tallying costs, providing a live calendar, and generating an itinerary; which will affect the user's planning process by making the experience quick, easy, and efficient by reducing frustration and time commitment, and by easily tracking budget and avoiding scheduling conflicts.
the product
the problem
the goal
USER RESEARCH
“I’d love the planning phase of prepping for holiday travel to be very easy – someplace where you can see everything that is going on in the place you are going to and then book it with a simple click.”
Vanya Vacationer
Age:
Resides:
Education:
Family Unit:
Occupation:
40s
Scotland, UK
University
Married - 2 children
Social Worker
primary personas
“I’d like to be able to look at what is going on in my locale for the year ahead and schedule the events I don’t want to miss.”
Age:
Resides:
Education:
Family Unit:
Occupation:
Lucy Local
50s
San Francisco, CA
Graduate School
Partnered
Tech Professional
An initial digital survey was conducted to collect a diverse group of participants that purchase tickets for museums and galleries. From that sample, 15 participants were interviewed via Zoom about their experience with purchasing museum tickets for vacation or yearly planning.
Assumptions going into the initial interviews:
Information that came to light after conducting the interviews:
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Participants would be purchasing tickets for events that only they would be attending
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Participants would prefer storing their tickets in their "Marketplace" account
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Participants wanted to purchase tickets in one place for events that they would be attending and for events they would not be attending themselves
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Participants wanted to purchase tickets in one place for events that they would be attending and for events they would not be attending themselves
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Participants wanted multiple ways to access and share their tickets
initial user interviews
user journey map
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Participants wanted multiple ways to access and share tickets
USER STORIES
Vanya Vacationer
As a busy professional who enjoys taking their family on holidays, I want to easily plan and book all of our activities and pay for it, all at once, while also generating an itinerary, so that I can enjoy the process of planning our holiday, as well as, be organized and prepared on arrival.
Lucy Local
As a local art enthusiast, I want to have a one-stop-shop for exploring and purchasing tickets to events around the city, so that I don't have a bunch of extra work to do because I can pay for everything at one time, and it will help me keep track of things throughout the planning process with a "live" calendar and costs.
USER PROBLEM STATEMENTS
Vanya Vacationer
Vanya is a busy professional, who needs an easy online experience to explore and purchase tickets for activities for their family holiday in a different city, because the current alternatives are very time consuming and frustrating, don't keep track of total costs in real time, or show a calendar of what is being scheduled in order to keep track of things while booking, or offer a final itinerary for their trip.
Lucy Local
Lucy is a local art enthusiast, who needs an easy online experience to explore the local events for the entire year and purchase tickets all in one place, because the current alternatives do not offer a way to keep track of the combined costs or proposed calendar while in the process of looking for events to attend.
GOAL STATEMENT
Museum Marketplace will let users explore multiple museums and purchase tickets through one portal, while also tallying costs and generating an itinerary, which will affect museum visitors who are planning vacations for specific dates or locals who are planning their year, by making the planning of vacations or local leisure quick, easy, and efficient; reducing frustration in planning; and easily staying on budget, and not accidentally purchasing tickets for conflicting events.
Effectiveness will be measured by the number of site visitors, conversion rates, and whether or not - and where - drop off occurs.
USER PAIN POINTS
Users want quick and easy access to multiple museums and to purchase all tickets at one time
Users want a "live" calendar so that they can keep track of their tickets during the planning process
Users want a "live" costs generator so that they can keep track of their budget during the planning process
Users want an itinerary generated at the end of their planning process
Tickets
Calendar
Costs
Itinerary
ACCESSIBILITY OPPORTUNITIES
1
Clear Instructions
& Low Effort Steps
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Clear & easy CTAs
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Limit steps in flow
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Less physical engagement
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Seamless user flow
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Voice activation
Clear Visual Communication
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Clear visual cues
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Alt text
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Contrasts & colors
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Size of text
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Responsive web design
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Zoom in/out
Intentional Use of
Information Achitecture
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Create clear visual hierarchy
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Headings
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Different font sizes
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Layouts
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Based on an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each, and the gaps in offerings, we have identified many opportunities within this space for Museum Marketplace:
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To be able to purchase tickets for many venues all at one time and in one place
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To see a total costs summary when adding tickets to the cart
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To see a calendar of the events in the cart to assist with planning
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To have the ability to create and share an itinerary
direct & indirect competitors
IDEATION & INITIAL DESIGN
DEMO VIDEO: DESKTOP LO-FI PROTOTYPE v2
DEMO VIDEO: SMARTPHONE LO-FI PROTOTYPE v2
CONCEPT TESTING
Users want a clearer way to understand that they are in the "cart" and the contents of the "cart," including the costs
Cart Unclear
insights
Ticketing Process Unclear
Users want a clearer way to know that tickets were purchased, how the tickets will be sent to them, and how to access and share tickets
Interruptions to Flow
Users want less pop-up notifications and interruptions to the ticketing flow; a clearer and more seamless flow
P0
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Cart awareness & identification
P1
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Seamless ticket flow
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Confirmation ticket information
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Confirmation ticket access
priorities
recommendations
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Make it easier to identify that the user is in the cart
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Make the cart contents clearer and more useful to the user – including the calculation and assignment of costs
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Make the post-purchase ticketing information and access easier and clearer
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Make the ticket flow more seamless, shorter, and efficient
action steps
affinity diagram
The usability studies were conducted to identify and understand any pain points the participants might face with the main user experience of selecting tickets and purchasing the tickets in one checkout experience, to determine if it was quick and easy to access and complete, and how to adapt the design for a better user experience overall.
5 participants were selected from the initial interview pool to achieve a diverse group regarding demographics, abilities, languages, frequency of purchasing exhibit tickets, rate of attendance at museums, possible edge cases, etc.
The usability studies focused on whether or not the participants could successfully complete specific tasks easily and quickly, and to determine the participants' level of enjoyment throughout the process:
usability studies
Locate a specific museum
Search offerings for a specific date range
Select exhibits for a specific date and time
Keep track of their schedule and any conflicts
Keep track of their costs
Complete the purchase of all tickets at one checkout
IMPACT OF USABILITY STUDIES
UPDATED DESIGN
DEMO VIDEO: DESKTOP HI-FI PROTOTYPE v1
DEMO VIDEO: SMARTPHONE HI-FI PROTOTYPE v1
RESPONSIVE DESIGN v1
IMPACT METRICS
STYLE GUIDE
CHALLENGES
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Offering a "one-stop-shop": competitors each offer part of the journey, but none combine multi-venue purchasing in one transaction, with a live calendar, a running costs total, and an itinerary. The challenge was in deciding how much of that to pack into one ticketing flow without overwhelming users.
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Communicating an interactive calendar: Participants were confused about what they could do with the calendar view. Messaging the calendar as a live planning tool meant rethinking how information and action were communicated in the ticketing flow.
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Generating a seamless flow with competing user and business needs: Participants wanted fewer pop-ups and interruptions, but the flow still had to communicate ticket delivery, conflicts, confirmations, and post-purchase access to tickets. Balancing these to create a shorter path to deliver the necessary information required multiple usability studies.
challenges
TAKEAWAYS
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Users bring their own mental models: Participants sought to only view the calendar instead of use it as an interactive tool, which showed that a features's purpose has to be obvious from how it looks and behaves. Design cannot assume a reliance on common knowledge of the general digital environment.
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Define metrics at every stage: Identifying effectiveness measures at the first stage helped to track initial progress with usability studies but updating metrics as the design evolves and launches is necessary to ensure the product is successful and is capturing the needs of the users.
takeaways
