The following project is a proposed multimethod usability evaluation of the Louvre Museum's Online Tours. The online tour being analyzed is: "Founding Myths: From Hercules to Darth Vader".
Sample of online tour.
Heuristic Analysis
1. VISIBILITY OF SYSTEM STATUS
Gives satisfactory feedback. It is evident what section of the website the user is in by looking at the section header and color. The actual tour opens up in a new page, so this change in system status is quite evident to the user. The map to the top left gives the user visibility of where they are in the gallery. Predictable interactions and overall visibility of the system status helps create trust with the users and lets them traverse the website even without having seeing it before.
2. MATCH BETWEEN SYSTEM AND THE REAL WORLD
Uses copy and ui elements familiar to the user – the use of such signifiers means it’s easy for the users to complete their tasks effectively and intuitively. Online Tours is somewhat hidden in the website and is under the section “Collection & Louvre Palace”, whereas I would expect it to be under “Activities & Tours”. Validation on my analysis required from more usability experts. The “Credits” page at the bottom sits between two logos for very prominent art galleries, and looks like a logo.
3. USER CONTROL AND FREEDOM
This is an area that needs some improvement. Examples: 1) User does not have the freedom to switch to another page in the same section and get back to the Online Tours page, as it doesn’t exist in the link panel. 2) In the tour, there are no signifiers explaining what the user needs to do in order to scroll and look around the gallery.
4. CONSISTENCY AND STANDARDS
The Louvre website uses ui elements and a navigation structure that is consistent with most users’ conceptual model of a website. The usage of the hamburger menu in the actual tour is not consistent with its conceptual model. A typical hamburger menu opens up a side menu with more options. However in the tour, it closes some menu items. In this case, I would recommend using an “eye” icon to show/hide menu items.
5. ERROR PREVENTION
If a user types in the search to look up “virtual tour”, it is not immediately obvious where the results are presented. Further, search results are presented under separate sections, which is not very intuitive for the users looking for them. Users might be in a hurry and miss clicking on the different sections.
6. RECOGNITION RATHER THAN RECALL
Promotes recognition by organizing the website into digestible and recognizable sections. Even if a user is not familiar with the website, they can easily recognize the titles and try and achieve their goals that way. Similarly, the tour page uses signifiers that users are already aware of, to make browsing the gallery easier.
7. FLEXIBILITY AND EFFICIENCY OF USE
Hovering over the search button shows “most viewed pages” – making the browsing process more efficient as there’s a probability that the user might also be looking for one of those pages.Within the tour page, the website makes it efficient for seasoned users to simply click on the map and skip areas they’ve already seen in the website.
8. AESTHETIC AND MINIMAL DESIGN
A strength of the website is that they have divided the large amount of content that they have into chunks of information (main sections at the top, search/calendar/tickets at the side, social media, etc). The typefaces feel quite default, and not in line with their logo – the typefaces and colors picked should really reflect the feeling of the Louvre museum, and feel unique to the identity of the museum. The ui elements / hover states also feel a little dated.
9. HELP USERS RECOGNIZE, DIAGNOSE, AND RECOVER FROM ERRORS
Within the tour page, if a user accidentally clicks on the “credits” icon at the bottom of the page, there’s no marked exit and the user is left without clear instructions on how to recover from their error.
10. HELP AND DOCUMENTATION
Not much help and documentation on either the Louvre website or the tour page. Website footer: Plan your visit > Contact us > Website There’s a generic email address provided for all inquiries about the website.
Task Analysis
Assumptions made about user: Fairly technologically savvy, have access to an internet connection that can hold the bandwidth needed to run this tour, familiar with digital maps, know how to use interactive programs, and navigation for them is more so about choice. To some degree, the functions they use to navigate this exhibit are shaped by the way that they use the personal devices they access the tour from (tablet, computer).
Thinkaloud
The user will begin their task from the gallery tour page. The first task assigned to the user will be to explore the gallery.
As the user navigates the gallery, the researcher will encourage the user to keep speaking by using prompts that do not interrupt, distract, or influence the user.
If the user need encouragement to keep speaking researcher will use neutral prompts such as. “Keep talking” , “uh huh” and “mmm.”
The process will be video recorded and the observer will take notes.
TASK 1 INSTRUCTIONS
Instructions: Please explore the Petite Gallery Heros and Myths tour. While exploring the gallery, please vocalize all thoughts that come into your mind without censoring yourself as you go about the task. Please let us know once you feel like you have completed the entire tour to your satisfaction.
WHY
The purpose of this task is to observe how easy or difficult it is for the user to maneuver and explore the gallery.
TASK 2 INSTRUCTIONS
Please find information within the gallery as to what the purpose of the exhibition is. Once you have a grasp as to what the gallery is about, please answer the question, what is the purpose of the gallery/what is it about? Please speak your thoughts throughout the entire task.
WHY
The objective for this task is to understand if the purpose for the gallery is clear to a user or visitor.
Self-Report Questionnaires
Survey composite scores will be analyzed in conjunction with thinkaloud responses.
IMMERSION EXPERIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE (IEQ)
REGULATORY FOCUS QUESTIONNAIRE (RFQ)
DIGITAL LITERACY QUESTIONNAIRE
Designed collaboratively with The New School for Social Research students Gandhali Bapat, Valencia Simon, and Ashley Peacock.
Experiment design is the property of Silas Choudhury and collaborators.