The Carr Virtual Center
Redesigning the website of a non-profit cultural arts organization to provide a user-friendly, manageable, global platform that allows people all over the world to experience the arts and interact.
Overview
The Carr Center is a Cultural Arts Center that wanted to expand its organization's outreach to a wider audience through an online platform that showcases multidisciplinary art forms such as paintings, dance performances, music performances, and more.
The first iteration of this platform called the Carr Virtual Center (CVC), was launched a year prior to our arrival. It proved to not be user-friendly, intuitive, and manageable. My team and I were hired to improve these aspects of the website through user experience research and design. Furthermore, we were tasked with implementing findings in preparation for a relaunch of the website.
Duration:
3 months
My Role:
User Experience Research
User Experience Design
Low-Code Web Development
Problem Space
The Carr Virtual Center was intended to be a place where people from all over the world, despite Covid restrictions and limitations, could continue to experience the Carr Center remotely while still having the in person mystique.
The initial launch was riddled with inconsistencies, design flaws, and technological uncertainties which made it difficult to enjoy as a user and manage as a creator.
Secondary Research
Competitive Analysis
To gain a clear understanding of the project and our stakeholder’s goals, I conducted a competitive analysis. This allowed me to understand what currently exists and what novel solutions could be offered to our partners.
There were three categories that set the criteria for the competitive analysis:
Museum Websites
Virtual Gallery Platforms
Website Builders.
Takeaways
Navigation
For improved navigation on a museum site, it is optimal for a website to include a search bar that spans the entire site.
Social component
It is important for a virtual gallery exhibit to offer the opportunity for users to interact with one another whether through text, voice, or video.
ease of use
Low-code website builders are the most appropriate solutions to ensuring a manageable backend for The Carr Center Staff.
Intuitive customization for those less experienced with coding and low costs are both important needs of The Carr Center. Both needs can be met using the proper web-builder platform.
Primary research
After completing secondary background research, I decided to interview internal and external stakeholders. Additionally, I conducting usability tests and a heuristic evaluation to uncover user’s perspective, goals, and pain points.
Heuristics Evaluation
Using Nielsen's list of 10 heuristics to uncover flaws on some of the most important pages of the website. After receiving feedback, I proceeded to use these insights to inform our sketches and wireframing for the new website.
Example of heuristic evaluation criteria and findings
Usability Testing
Beyond performing a heuristic analysis, I also facilitated usability tests on the prototype. I performed three usability tests.
Heuristic Takeaways
These insights helped me to identify what I needed to search for on other platforms. The heuristic evaluation allowed me to clearly identify what was wrong so that I could look for better examples that deliver the desired outcome in the right way.
Too many objects with unnecessary links. No indication of what objects had clickable links.
Design choices were not representative of The Carr Center brand.
Navigation issues in the Carr Virtual Center, such as misrepresentation of the type of artwork, scrolling difficulties on certain artworks, and no back buttons to get to previous pages
Usability Test Takeaways
Finding 1
The language used on the Carr Virtual Center 2.0 is unclear in certain areas. Specifically, the headers on the menu bar were confusing to users.
Solution 1
Change the labels on the menu bar to incorporate more universally understood words.
Finding 2
Users are unaware of the location of where the instructions are for the virtual galleries.
Solution 2
Shift the information architecture of the gallery pages to ensure that the instructions link is the first thing the user sees as they open the page.
Finding 3
Users had difficulties locating the lounge, which is an area on the site that allows users to connect via video and audio to discuss the arts.
Solution 3
Move the lounge to a subpage of the galleries on the navigation bar for users to find it easily.
Ideation & Prototyping
To begin, I wanted to gain an understanding of and connection with the users of the organization’s products.
Insights and Analysis
After analyzing the data collected from the comparative analysis, interviews, usability testing, and other methods that I employed, I used affinity walls to help organize my team’s ideas and direct our brainstorming. Spreadsheets were also used to code findings into themes and distinguish the main takeaways.
After gathering feedback and organizing our results, we decided to utilize three platforms that we felt were optimal for building the Carr Virtual Center 2.0. Those platforms were Wix, Artsteps, and Spatial.io.
These platforms proved to be user-friendly, easy to manage, and accommodating of the features necessary to deliver an interactive experience.
Prototype/Implementation
After establishing Wix as the preferred platform to build the CVC 2.0 on, we decided to use it to create our prototype and to make iterations. The majority of the feedback collected to enhance the prototype was generated from usability testing and weekly presentations of the high-fidelity mockups.
Below is a video demonstrating a walkthrough of the final deliverable that was created for our client:
Sustainability
Training Documents:
To ensure that our partners could successfully maintain the new website, I constructed a document that provides step-by-step instructions on how to create/build each and every part of the website.
Training Sessions:
After the development of the final prototypes, I scheduled training sessions with each of the individuals in the organization who would be responsible for maintaining the site after its completion.
Reflection
Time Constraint:
Our team tried our best to follow a strict project management plan and stick with our schedule. However, the further we got in developing our site redesign, the more potential we saw in changes that could be made to enhance it. Unfortunately, we were only allotted 3 months time to complete it. During this small time span, we acted as the researchers, designers, and developers of the platform. Due to time constraints, there were certain aspects that we were not able to cover during our partnership with the Carr Center.
Accessibility:
Accessibility is an aspect of the project which was important, but due to time constraints, we were not able to adequately address it. Elements such as alt-text, text-to-speech, and color contrast were all accessibility factors that we were not able to cover during our redesign, however, if allotted more time we would have definitely addressed them.
