Leonardo’s Basement: A Redesign
Intro:
Leonardos basement is a one of a kind environment where children and adults of all ages can discover their creativity. That’s what they do best and they do it extremely well. From the outside of their building, it seems to go unnoticeable with every other building on the block, but once inside their doors space, it is one of the most creative habitats around.
The Users:
Primary users:
Parents of young children and teens (ages 6-17) looking for youth-oriented programming
Teachers and/or school administrators looking for youth-oriented programming
Individuals or organizations looking to arrange parties or corporate team- building events
Secondary users:
General community members wanting to better understand what the organization is/does
Individuals or organizations: who want to contribute to the organization
Business Objectives
Communicate the value and impact of the organization and program offerings Promote upcoming classes and workshops
Allow for online registration and enrollment in workshops and classes
Usability Review
The team used the information given to us, and worked individually to preform a rapid heuristic analysis to make sure we understood the business goals, user goals and goals of the application to create scenarios and tasks for usability testing.
The Client Goals
* Communicate the value and impact of the organization and program offerings
* Promote upcoming classes and workshops
USER GOALS
• Understand Who/What/ Where of the Organization
• Learn about potential classes and events
• Move quickly/concisely on the site
• Allow for online registration and enrollment in workshops and classes
One of the findings from the Heuristic Analysis
Usability Test
Before conducting usability testing, our team collaborated on a customized script to ensure we were finding the key insights that Leonardo’s Basement was having us find. Once the script was finalized we conducted 14 sessions of usability testing with users.
• 10 were conducted remotely using appear.in as well as having an additional external audio recording for redundancy purposes
• 4 were conducted in person to insure we could have clear insight into how the users were approaching the tasks we had laid out for them in our script. In the room with the user we had a moderator and script taker. 2 additional researchers were watching from a conference room across the hall via drop cam and screen sharing.
We synthesized our data and collaborated to create scenarios and tasks to accomplish after determining our strategy to use usability testing.
SCENARIO 1: INFORMATION FINDING
Imagine you want to explore the activities available to see if any might interest your child. How would you go about finding and signing up for an activity?
SCENARIO 2: REGISTRATION
Imagine you are a teacher and you want to attend the “Happy Hour Open House” hosted by Leonardo’s Basement. Could you show me how you would sign up for that?
SCENARIO 3: VOLUNTEERING
Suppose you had weekends free and have been thinking about volunteering at a local non-profit. How would you go about seeing if volunteering at Leonardo’s Basement would be a good fit for you?
Key Insights
After concluding the usability testing, our team synthesized our notes by importing them into a trello board, tagging by crucial information, quotes, slips, unaccomplished goals and more. Seeing the information filtered by quotes, patterns started to emerge and come to light.
Key Findings we discovered
Finding 1 Users were not able to locate the information about events and classes
"I don't know where to go.”- Fred
Many of the users weren’t able to differentiate “Register for classes” “Calendar” and “Program”. Many users had difficulty navigating the correct place to go.
Finding 2 Usage of imagery in the carousal didn’t necessarily convey what Leonardos basement was.
"I feel as though I don't see Leonardos Basement in this website”-Ally
Once told what the mission statement was users were very excited that there was something in the community that was available to them and their children. In regards the the first impressions many users had trouble knowing the website was for. Once told what the mission statement of Leonardo’s basement and additionally were surprised when discovering Leonardo’s Basement offered adult classes and events.
Usage of imagery in the carousal didn’t necessarily convey what Leonardos basement was.
Finding 3 Users were not understanding that volunteering was under “Donate-Time”
"It should say volunteer somewhere... money, time, stuff doesn't tell me anything.”- Lindsey
The majority of users were not immediately clear where to navigate to when asked how to go about volunteering. Although they were able to accomplish the goal, it was not intuitive process.
Finding 4: Registering for an account was a pain point
"I would not fill all this out”-Rick
When registering as an adult, many users felt that the the registration form included too much personal and information they considered not relevant such as the fields “hospital name, doctors name, gender, who was authorized to pick them up” and more. Many users stated that they would exit the page if prompted to fill the form out.
Click To View Axure Prototype
Wireframing and Axure
Discovering the flow of the users and their insight was crucial to the next step that took place. Using sketch, I created a rapid prototype, wire framing the next steps to take place. Incorporating the data gathered to make informed changes to improve clarity, accessibility and flow to improve the experience of the users. To test if users were able to navigate this sight more fluidly, I made an Axure prototype.
Click Here to download the full PDF of the findings and recommendations
Findings and Recommendation Report
After compiling all of my research, testing and prototypes, I made a findings and recommendations report for Leonardos basement. Although further analysis, research and testing is needed to go forward it was a pleasure to help connect children and adults to Leonardo’s Basement; where they can make and build whatever comes into their imagination.