America’s Car Museum
Celebrating America’s love affair with the automobile.
America’s Car Museum is a nonprofit museum that exists for the purpose of educating visitors about the history and technological advancement of cars. This includes the impact that automobiles have on American culture and innovations created in the automobile throughout history.
| Role | Time | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Usability Researcher | 10 weeks | www.usertesting.com |
The Research Opportunity
How do we discover if the America’s Car Museum Website Communicates effectively?
With a team, I conducted a usability research study on the America’s Car Museum website. The study method was an unmoderated remote test given via www.usertesting.com. The focus of the study was to learn if the website communicates information clearly. Specifically, we wanted to know if the website was easy to navigate, if users could find which exhibits were currently on display, and if they could find the activities to do at home with children.
The study resulted in recommendations for design changes with potential to impact the effectiveness of the website to reach the target audience.
My role in the research study
In the spring of 2020, I participated in this group project at the University of Washington. As a team, we developed a research document that included the background, goals, and possible impact of the usability study. Together, we developed research questions, screening questions for the test participants, tasks that the participants would perform, and a script to present the scenario and tasks during the study.
Independently, I reviewed videos of five test participants and gathered data on the results. I created a spreadsheet to help me understand the findings of this study. I then used the spreadsheet to create a report outlining the finding of the usability research study.
Research Study
How might we learn if the website users are finding key information easily?
We developed the following list of questions to guide our research. These questions led to the development of the tasks that the users would perform during the usability test.
What questions were asked?
- Can the user find which exhibit is currently displayed at the museum?
- Are users able to locate key features and functionality of the website such as:
- Business hours, location and price of admission
- Current exhibit information
- Future exhibit information
- Lesson plans for educators
- Coloring sheets for children
- Calendar of events
- Benefits of membership
- Is the website easy to navigate?
- Can the user find activities to do at home related to cars? Is anything stopping them?
What tasks would the participants perform during the study?
We created the following list of tasks that the user would perform during the study.
- Go to the America's Car Museum wbsite.
- Find the business hours.
- Find where they are located.
- Find the price of admission.
- Find the current exhibit information.
- Find the future exhibit information.
- Find lesson plans for educators.
- Find coloring sheets for children.
- Find the calendar of events.
- Find the benefits of membership.
Results
Findings
Overall, the navigation headings were found to be clear and easily understood. However, the “Fuel for Home” heading seemed vague and was misunderstood by some test participants. Additionally, there was confusion among participants as to which exhibits were currently available for viewing.
