Sonoma County Museum Home Page

Testing Results for Typical Users

The Sonoma County Museum supplied names of people they considered to be typical users of their site. Emails with an introduction and the survey questions were sent to these people. "Friendly reminder" emails were sent to those who didn't respond within a week to help increase response rate. We received 4 responses as well as comments from the museum's web consultant. The respondents were area professionals including an Arts Council Trustee and a Designer.

Target Audience

The target audience is intelligent and educated. The desired audience includes younger visitors and those seeking broader genres of art and history, in addition to contemporary art.

The museum would like to attract North Bay area residents as well as visitors and tourists in Sonoma County.

Key audience groups are patrons of art, donors, educators, potential facility renters, artists and volunteers.

Project Vision

Our goal was to create a website that is more hip (not stodgy or boxy), to better appeal to a younger audience. It should be more visual, less text-heavy, with a clean, attractive design. New features included 4 slideshows to showcase the shop, rentals, history and collections.

Messages and visuals should better reflect the history of the museum and building including the many appealing architectural features. The current logo is under consideration and should be displayed near the bottom in a smaller format.

A key benchmark for success will be how usable the web site is, with emphasis on ease of finding things. The navigation and organization of the site was redesigned to improve these areas. Another benchmark for success will be how appealing the web site is visually and functionally to the target audience.

Results Summary

Overall the respondents were positive about the site. All respondents could find all the information with the exception of one person not seeing the slideshows. This indicated we met our objective of improving ease of finding things. Most respondents found the site appealing with the exception of one person whose taste varied (as would be expected with subjective matter.) There were no identified typos or broken links.

Improvement Areas

The results from the User Survey did not indicate a need for any immediate changes. Future improvement areas to be considered include transitioning the archives from pdf to html, increasing the size of the slideshow expanded view, and possibly modifying the navigation drop-downs to be more user-friendly (based on additional responses).

Survey Data

Below are the actual questions and results.

Computer information

Computer (PC or Mac): 4 PCs
Monitor size (if known):14", 15" laptop, 17" laptop, 21"
Monitor colors: 32 bit
Operating system: XP, Windows, XP Home, XP Pro
Browser (IE8, IE7, Firefox, Safari; include version: IE8, IE, IE7 (2)
Internet connection: 3 DSL, Cable

What is the site about?

The museum as an Institution
Sonoma County Museum
Comprehensive review of the SCM

What is the overall tone and feel of the site?

Conservative and corporate, Staid.
Accessible, nice open feeling, professional yet welcoming, informative
Somewhat static – some sites have changing pictures or announcements.

What was your first impression of the opening screen?

I really like it.
Not clear what this was about. A header and two images. Nothing gives me a feel for the focus of the museum.
That the mission, i.e. "Connecting Sonoma County's Rich History with Contemporary Art" should be right below the name of the museum, in the orange box.
I like the Post Office building picture – that will change with two locations, so side-by-side pictures?

Where did you first click?

Nav bar “About"
"About"
Events

Did you find the site easy to navigate?

Easy enough but Nav bar links are in the wrong order. Why would I want to go to the about page first? Does not tell me anything about why I came to the site. This is a visual arts and history organization. That is why I am coming to the site. First things should be what I am going to the site for: exhibits, events and the collection. About, visiting are secondary. Not call to action info was below the scroll line and I did not see it until a few returns to the home page. Move the main images over and add that further up.
Yes, very easy.
It was easy to click on the “History, Events, Education, etc” top row but harder to get to the tabs listed below the top row.
Drop downs did not work well if I moved my cursors a little off then they disappeared or another drop down next to the one I wanted would appear. I should not have to be so precise and careful with mouse control to do what I want.

Were the pages interesting? Why or why not?

No.
Yes, very interesting
Pretty plain but readable.

What is your impression of the color scheme and images?

Corporate and bland, not in line with Mission. Typeface in particular is for a business not an art institution.
The "sonoma county museum" orange seems different from the "join the mailing list" orange and I think they should be the same. I would use the "somona county museum" orange, or perhaps a little darker.
OK

What did you like best about the site?

I would like to give you something here, but I think the direction of the site needs a rethink. Everything about it should be reflecting where the museum needs to and wants to go. It should be pointing to it future.
Warm, friendly, well organized, easy access, good information, not too "formal" or complex.
New look!
I think the interface is particularly nice. I really like the navigation at the top, and the facebook/myspace/twitter/smithsonian at the bottom of the page. The greyscale to color roll-over is a really nice touch. Keeping them in grey until you roll over helps so much with the visual clutter.

What suggestions for improvement do you have?

On the home page I would either use a serif typeface or avoid the sanserif solid caps such as in "current" and "upcoming" . Also there's something unsettling about the placement of the four headings with respect to the three different size rectangular images on that page. The four headings don't feel "comfortable" or "connected" with their images. It would also be good to include a simple statement identifying the shows with the photos, ie. "Richard Shaw Ceramic Scultpure" and "Polaridad Complementaria: Recent Works from Cuba." The home page is the only page on which I don't particularly like the layout below the name, the museum photo and the dropdowns, which are all fine. All the other pages are GREAT!
I notice that the images are really small in the slideshow portions. Can those be made larger?
Some of the images seem low resolution. The image of the Museum in the header, as well as the black and white image of the children going up the steps seem particularly grainy to me. I don't know if that was a function of the test-version of the site, but I think having sharp, clear images of the Museum necessary.
The page doesn't resize. I'm looking on a 17" laptop, but it fills less than half of my screen.

Were there any links that did not work, images that did not load, typos?

Not that I saw but I did not have time to look for typos
No, all excellent.

Did the slideshows load relatively quickly? Was the slideshow interface clear?

Seemed slow as slideshows often are. Main image is way too small. This is a visual institution, let me see that. Thumbnails were so small I could not be sure what I was clicking on.
Yes, no problem. Yes, very clear and effective.
Slideshows?? I missed something.

Could you easily find the following information? If not, please explain why.

Online form to become a member: Yes
Where to make a donation: Yes
Planning a trip to the museum: Yes
Renting the museum for a social or business event: Yes
Upcoming events such as First Fridays or Family Days: Yes
Current and upcoming exhibits: Yes
School field trip information: Yes

Please share any additional comments

Overall – good work! An improvement, thanks!
Links to other sites that have elements I think are missing. http://www.21cmuseum.org/museum/Default.aspx Interesting design, conveys this is a hip place with an elegant aesthetic
http://www.neuegalerie.org/ Images are not static but similar feel to your site
http://www.thecjm.org/ Logo shows both the architecture which is a main feature of the museum and the page is live
http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/default.html A bit busy but call to action is at top right, things move, fonts are interesting.
http://www.miamiartmuseum.org/home.asp Visually more interesting, Call to actions top left. Facebook, twitter. (did not see those on the site)
http://www.ybca.org This one really gives me both a feel for the org, it is clearly about its mission, Calls to action are right there. Lots to easily explore.
Put exhibit archives in html to have active links. This may improve search ranking and user experience as well as search.