Memphis Fire Museum Website Redesign- How can we make the site encompass the Museum's experience?
Skills: UX/UI Design, UX Research, Usability Testing, UX Writing | Role: UX Designer | Duration: 1 week
Background
I grew up visiting the Memphis Fire Museum since my Dad is a firefighter. I always enjoyed playing in the fire truck and crawling through a house trying to escape a fire. The pandemic has caused lots of museums to struggle reopening, so I wanted to help the Fire Museum welcome back its customers and invite new ones in a fun way.
Objective
To encourage guests to visit the museum, my goal for the website is to help users navigate the site easily while enjoying the web experience.
Result
The new site succeeded in allowing users to book tickets online, find visiting hours, and visually enhanced the user's experience. It was even kid approved by 4 year old Jayce who said " I wanna go there and ride a fire truck and be a fireman."
Problem
The current site makes it difficult for customers to find information about the museum's visiting hours and to know what exhibits the museum offers. It also does not showcase the kid-friendly fun of the website.
Audit
The original site had a brick background that was a bit distracting. The brick background was supposed to resemble the memorial for fallen firefighters with their names engraved in the brick, but it was hard to see. The Admissions details were missing from the top of the page and the drop down; however, it was located on the bottom of the page which made it hard to find. The site also has no call to action in the header, and it doesn't visually showcase all of the exhibits to visit.
User Interviews & Behavior
I held a stakeholder interview, six user interviews and an observational study. Overall, the stakeholder and the 6 users concurred that the website needs to be more lively and needs to be easy to navigate. The users emphasized the need to showcase the kid-friendliness on the site, while the stakeholder suggested to showcase the memorials at the museum.
When I visited the museum for an observational study, I found that the visitors were primarily families with young children; although they walked through the entire museum, they lingered in the kids and interactive exhibits. I also asked the front desk staff and tour guides questions about their visitors, and they told me that it is primarily families from out of town and schools that visit with the occasional retired firefighter. Additionally, I asked them about the most popular exhibits, and they showed me as I toured; that insight helped in creating the information architecture on the site.
Here are the personas of the top 3 people who visit the museum. These personas were created by using the information provided to me by the front desk workers, stakeholder, and by observing the visitors.
Market Research
I conducted a competitive analysis against two other local museums and one fire museum out of state. I found that the local museums had longer homepages with the most important information there and the one fire museum showcased the exhibits in categories on the homepage. All of these websites had a CTA on the hero image.
Wireframes
There are Call to actions at each point of the page to guide the users through the site. The site is built so users do not have to leave the homepage unless they want more information or to book; I did this to be considerate of the user's time.
I put the admissions prices and times on the left hand side, so that users can look at the price before they buy tickets and all of the information is in one spot. I indicate non available dates by slashing them out, and I indicate the current date by having it in red.
Usability Testing
When conducting user testing on the wireframe, I found that 100% of the users were able to find visiting times, exhibits, book events, and find the ticket price, but the buy ticket feature had a 66% fail rate. As a result, I decided to add some copy to the 'book tickets' feature to help guide the user through the check out process.
Hi-Fi Design
Have I made an Impact?
I have made an impact on my city and the Museum. This website will allow visitors to be able to see how fun the museum is and incite them to visit. By visiting, people are able to learn about proper fire safety which in turn saves lives.
