Category: Group Museums

Posted on

Heuristic Evaluation of the Ringling Art Museum’s Website (Individual Assignment 2)

The website that has been selected for a heuristic evaluation is the one for the Ringling Art Museum, https://www.ringling.org/. This website holds information about the art museum and its location, hours, and content. It also provides a database with its online collection and archives. Through this website, a person can plan a visit and find out how to get there, view the Ringling Art Museum’s collection(s), learn a bit about the museum, etc.

Figure 1. Screenshot of the homepage of the Ringling Art Museum’s website found at https://www.ringling.org/

Scenario

In order to conduct this heuristic evaluation, I took the role of a person wanting to visit this art museum. During this scenario, I acted as a person who wished to buy tickets and plan their visit to this museum. The heuristic list that was used to evaluate the usability of this website was taken from Jakob Nielsen’s ten heuristics (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/) (2020). I approached this website with an open mind and tried to use it in the same way a potential visitor might in hopes that this might have made it easier to see what kinds of usability flaws would come up for someone who is using this site for its intended purpose. I feared that, in only looking for flaws, I might have seen heuristic violations where there were none.

Analysis

Beginning on the homepage (https://www.ringling.org/), the first flaw I recognized was how much was included on that page. There was a lot of movement, and I was overwhelmed at first with how colorful and busy it was. Without knowledge about the Ringling Art Museum prior to this evaluation, the fact that there were so many links elsewhere without explanation caused me confusion at first. This flaw violates Nielsen’s eighth heuristic, aesthetic and minimalist design, as the UI was overly busy and there was too much information before I had even started (2020).

Figure 2. Screenshot of the homepage of the Ringling Art Museum’s website found at https://www.ringling.org/
Note. Page is zoomed out to 25%

I was able to find the next page I needed in this scenario fairly easily. Because I was acting as someone intending to visit, the next page I visited was one that contained the hours and admission information, titled “Hours and Information” (https://www.ringling.org/hours-and-admission).

Figure 3. Screenshot of the “Hours and Admission” page of the Ringling Art Museum’s website found at https://www.ringling.org/hours-and-admission
Note. Page is zoomed out to 33%

The switch between such a busy homepage and a relatively still, monochromatic information page violated Nielsen’s fourth heuristic, consistency and standards (2020). Because the homepage had so much on it, the fact that this page had relatively few graphics felt jarring at first. Another heuristic this page violated is Nielsen’s sixth heuristic, recognition rather than recall, as all of the options given for ticket purchases were placed one after another in a long page where the user had to scroll down to find which option they wanted (2020). By the time I got to the bottom of the page, I had already lost track of what was on the top.

The next page I visited was the one titled “Plan Your Visit” (https://www.ringling.org/plan-your-visit). This page violated Nielsen’s second heuristic, match between system and the real world, as I had expected this page to have information about the contents/exhibitions within the museum instead of its actual contents which were regarding food and drink as well as safety protocols and guidelines (2020). The actual information I wanted was actually in a whole different tab titled “What’s On.”  

Figure 4. Screenshot of the “Plan Your Visit” page of the Ringling Art Museum’s website found at https://www.ringling.org/plan-your-visit
Note. Page is zoomed out to 50%
Figure 5. Screenshot of the “What’s On” page of the Ringling Art Museum’s website found at https://www.ringling.org/events/type/all
Note. Page is zoomed out to 50%

Discussion

Overall, this website was designed in a fairly usable way. The heuristic violations were few and far between, and I had no issue in completing the tasks I gave myself. However, because each page on the website was so spread out, I did have consistent issues in remembering everything that was on each individual page. A recommended fix for this would be something like finding a way to fit information next to each other instead of in one long column that a user needs to scroll down. This would help fix the website’s violation of Nielsen’s sixth heuristic of recognition and recall as it would be made easier to remember the choices presented on a page (2020). Another recommended fix would be to the homepage: reduce the amount of what is on this page to reduce the overwhelming nature of its current state. This would help this page not violate Nielsen’s eighth heuristic, aesthetic and minimalist design, as a reduction in the design would help a user not get overwhelmed immediately when they navigate to the homepage (2020). For example, reducing the number of graphics and movement and replacing them with a little negative space and/or text to match the other text-heavy and graphic-minimal pages on the website. This would also fix the website’s violation of Nielsen’s fourth heuristic, consistency and standards, as it would allow the homepage to better blend into the rest of the website (2020). After this evaluation, I can see that there are more positives regarding this website’s design than flaws. While there are violations in usability, it is an overall usable website that allows its users to efficiently go where they want and find the information they need.

Posted on

Group Topic Selection

Museums

Sonya Jackson, Megan Kosove, Joseph Rhodes, Jennifer Ritter, Kyle Wilson

Chosen Museum Type

We have chosen to narrow down the general topic of “museums” to specifically refer to art history museums.

Examples of these museums include, but are not limited to:

Interest Statement

Museums provide the service of curating important artifacts of the past in order to display them to the public. People are then able to learn about and/or experience pieces of our history and/or our natural world. Art museums specifically allow for people to experience the artistic values, views, and experiences of the past, allowing a visitor to appreciate the art as it is, what the art stands for, and both the art’s and our own places in the world. Art is a universal experience, and an art museum allows people to see the world from a different viewpoint.

Usability Statement

Because museums can have a significant role in individuals’ lives and society as a whole, they must be designed for a wide and varied audience. For example, students of all ages, researchers, the general public, etc. all need to be able to use museum services through intuitive design. Each person has different needs, goals, and abilities. This means museum usability must take into account the several characteristics of users in order to achieve an effective and usable design.