Art Spark Texas - Dance

Art Spark Texas - Dance

Art Spark Texas - Dance

A community that provides an inclusive platform for dance enthusiasts

This project is intended to improve the user experience of their website. We have emphasized upon usability research and testing to identify opportunities in the existing user experience and recommend improvements.

This project is intended to improve the user experience of their website. We have emphasized upon usability research and testing to identify opportunities in the existing user experience and recommend improvements.

This project is intended to improve the user experience of their website. We have emphasized upon usability research and testing to identify opportunities in the existing user experience and recommend improvements.

Role

UX researcher and designer,

contributed to all deliverables

UX researcher and designer,

contributed to all deliverables

Deliverables

Heuristic Evaluation

Competitive Analysis

User Research

Usability Testing

Heuristic Evaluation

Competitive Analysis

User Research

Usability Testing

Duration

4 months

4 months

Context

Context

Context

The current website for Art Spark Dance serves as a source of information about the organization's initiatives and events for all visitors. However, visitors and stakeholders face issues in finding relevant information and in other user tasks such as making a donation. 

The current website for Art Spark Dance serves as a source of information about the organization's initiatives and events for all visitors. However, visitors and stakeholders face issues in finding relevant information and in other user tasks such as making a donation. 

Challenge

Challenge

Improve the existing website of Art Spark Dance so that the users can easily understand, explore and participate in their initiatives.

Improve the existing website of Art Spark Dance so that the users can easily understand, explore and participate in their initiatives.

Final Solution

Final Solution

Final Solution

Our team came up with recommendations and improved design for user flows which will help website visitors to achieve their intended objectives easily.

PROCESS

Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic Evaluation

Consistency & Standards
Consistency & Standards
  • There is inconsistency in the visual properties of elements such as buttons and links. They have different fonts, sizes, types and backgrounds colors.

  • The “Contact Us” button on the menu and footer lead to different pages with dissimilar content.  Having multiple contact us pages often confused the user while reaching out to the team.

Visibility of System Status
Visibility of System Status
  • Carousel on the home page has no indicators about the number of frames and the wait time before switching to the next frame.

  • If a card is declined while making a donation, the error message is represented as plain text which is difficult to identify.

Heuristic Evaluation Snapshot
Heuristic Evaluation Snapshot
Heuristic Evaluation Snapshot

Competitive Analysis

Competitive Analysis

Competitive Analysis

This helped us understand how other NGOs are currently presenting their initiatives and also identify opportunities of improvement for ASD.

This helped us understand how other NGOs are currently presenting their initiatives and also identify opportunities of improvement for ASD.

USABILITY TESTING

Moderated In-Person
Usability Tests

Moderated In-Person
Usability Tests

  • We conducted eight moderated in-person usability tests with one moderator and one notetaker.

  • There were six task scenarios to test whether users can:

    • Register for a workshop

    • Message Art Spark Dance

    • Signup for a newsletter

    • Make a donation

    • Follow ASD on their social media pages

    • Browse through the podcast list

  • ​We applied a think-aloud protocol to identify user’s thought process and gather their feelings toward the website.

  • We conducted eight moderated in-person usability tests with one moderator and one notetaker.

  • There were six task scenarios to test whether users can:

    • Register for a workshop

    • Message Art Spark Dance

    • Signup for a newsletter

    • Make a donation

    • Follow ASD on their social media pages

    • Browse through the podcast list

  • ​We applied a think-aloud protocol to identify user’s thought process and gather their feelings toward the website.

Heuristic Evaluation Snapshot
Heuristic Evaluation Snapshot
Heuristic Evaluation Snapshot
Heuristic Evaluation Snapshot
Heuristic Evaluation Snapshot
Heuristic Evaluation Snapshot

M

M

Data collection methods used -
Data collection methods used -
  • Audio and video recording of participant.

  • Screen recording of the actions being performed by the participants on the website

  • Moderator and notetaker notes.

  • Likert and SUS scores filled by the participants after each task (likert scale) and the end of the test (SUS).

Data analysis
Data analysis
  • We first compiled our moderator and notetaker notes into an excel sheet for each of the tests we did.

  • Compiled and analyzed the Likert and SUS scores to gather quantitative insights.

  • Created affinity maps based on the notes we took to visualize trends. 

Participant Recruitment Criteria

Feedback
Round 2

Participant Recruitment Criteria

Qualification criteria for the test:

  • Age between 18 to 65

  • Have experience assisting people with disabilities

  • Living in Austin, TX

  • Have undertaken training in any type of performing arts

  • Interested in joining a dance class

  • Have experience contributing or donating to any NGO

  • Are comfortable browsing websites on a computer or tablet

  • Have provided digital for a person with disabilities

Moderated Tasks

Feedback
Round 2

Moderated Tasks

Participants were asked to complete a total of 5 moderated tasks. The details are described below.

Task Analysis

Feedback
Round 2

Task Analysis

Success rate (% of participants who could successfully complete the task) and categorization of tasks into Completed With Ease, Completed With Difficulty, Could not Complete. We can see that the success rate is high for most of the tasks, a large number of participants faced difficulty in completing them.

Task Analysis

Feedback
Round 2

Task Analysis

We then plotted Time On Task and Task Completion Scale to quantify where participants faced most difficulties. These two metrics can be good comparison standards for checking future site usability after the improvements are done.

Task Analysis

Feedback
Round 2

Task Analysis

The following graph captures the responses of standard SUS questionnaire. It helps in measuring the perceived ease of use for the website. The industry standard for minimum SUS score is 68, however, it was 35 for this website. It signifies very poor ease of use.

Recommendations

Recommendations

Recommendations

Analyzing the usability tests we proposed key recommendations for the organization which can elevate their website experience -
  1. Use standard design and general consistent language throughout the website.  

  2. Keep users in  Art Spark Dance and don’t direct them to other pages without notifying.

  3. Follow accessible design guidelines for the entire web.

  4. Ensure the website has good error handling and proper responses to actions.

  1. Use standard design and general consistent language throughout the website.  

  2. Keep users in  Art Spark Dance and don’t direct them to other pages without notifying.

  3. Follow accessible design guidelines for the entire web.

  4. Ensure the website has good error handling and proper responses to actions.

Future Scope

Future Scope

Future Scope

  1. Testing can be done with actual participants after getting the test plan approved from IRB. This would be helpful to understand their pain points.

  2. Accessibility features can be incorporated to assist people with disabilities access information about Art Spark Dance.

  3. KPIs calculated can be used to compare the results obtained from further usability testing.