Afro Brazil Arts
Moderated User testing
As a part of the Usability Theory and Practice Course Fall 2023, School of Information, Pratt Institute.
Introduction.
What is Afro Brazil Arts:
Afro Brazil Arts (ABA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving the rich cultural heritage of the Capoeira art form. They achieve this through various activities, connecting the beauty and significance of Afro-Brazilian traditions with both local and global audiences. It is a platform for learning, celebration, and community building, ensuring these valuable cultural expressions continue to inspire and thrive.
Key Functionalities:
- Educational programs: offering classes and workshops in traditional art forms like capoeira and samba, alongside lectures and demonstrations by renowned artists.
- Cultural events: organizing performances, festivals, and exhibits that showcase the vibrant tapestry of Afro-Brazilian music, dance, visual arts, and storytelling.
- Community engagement: Fostering an inclusive space for cultural exchange and appreciation, fostering understanding and appreciation for this unique heritage.
Who might use this Website:
- Students of Afro-Brazil Arts
- Afro Brazil Arts organization and staff
- Educational institutions and cultural organizations
- Funding agencies and donors
Preparing for the Client Brief
Guidelines:
Before the Client brief, it was ensured that by the end of the brief questions from these guidelines were answered:
- What are their goals/objectives
- Why are they participating in this study? What do they hope to learn?
- Who are their intended users
- Who is their target audience? Do they have any user profiles that you can use? Do they have access to anypotential participants?
- What key features do they want to test?
- Do they have any requests regarding the scope of your tests? Any specific tasks, outcomes, features, functions, etc. they would like to know more about?
- Schedule a check-in meeting
- After meeting with your client, start drafting your user profiles and screening questionnaire.
Additionally:
- All team members researched on the client’s website beforehand. Specific questions such as does ABA offer only classes were asked.
- It was made sure no problem or solutions to usability problems were offered within the client brief.
- The client brief was focused to learn the most about the client, and their expectations from the study.
Link to the Complete Client Brief transcripts
Insights from Client Brief
Principle Observation:
The client has three stakeholders and two main websites, one is geared towards representing the academy, and the other is for students or potential students of the Capoeira Academy.
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Insights
Organisational Insights:
- Afro Brazil Arts wants to attract more educators and school administrators,peopl from within the district and higher up in the Department of Education in New York City,who are looking for community building to their website.
- The client wishes to find out ways for the larger public such as special needs schools to find out about Afro-Brazil arts.
- The client wishes to find out ways for the larger public such as special needs schools to find out about Afro-Brazil arts.
Full List
Expectations about their Website:
- The client would want people to donate using their website.
- The purpose of the website according to the client is to tell their story to anyone who is visiting, because that will then lead to either wanting to sign up for the programs or being interested in the classes.
Full List
Insights involving Stakeholders:
- Generally, either schools or students get confused by either site
- Getting to the mission and values/ about us page is hard and requires back and forth.
- The Client would like to know What kind of content the users would like to see at the end, as drop-off points to compel them to contact the organization or make donations.
Full List
Preparing Research Objectives
Two Big Questions:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- How to narrow down testing scope when the client has multiple websites?
- Which user groups/stakeholders to focus on , since each user group is very different?
All Stakeholders:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Donors, Parents, Potential Students , School admins
Potential Areas for Outreach:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Any Communities looking to take classes,
- Students interested in liberal arts classes in schools.
- Juvenile detention centres
- Special Needs schools
- School admins within such schools.
- Parents from or out of the schools.
Possible Research areas:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Find out if combining the sites would be better or leaving them separate, and study the effects on user bases, content, and functionalities on both sites in either case.
- Do general research on what parts of other successful nonprofits are doing right in terms of the user experience to compel the users towards reaching out.
- Find out the potential pain points in the existing site.
Two Big Decisions:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Since both the websites serve very esential purposes that work towards providing the complete Experience of Afro Brazil arts, both the websites were decided to be focused on, but only the main functionalities of each were considered.
- Since the group students, span across both the websites, only students were decided as stakeholders for this Project.
Final Research Objectives
Target Audiences:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Students
Purpose and Objectives
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Determine the best way to communicate and establish users' needs effectively. In return establishing firm relationships with target audiences and increasing awareness.
Research objectives:
Organisation site: www.afrobrazilarts.org:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Does the site clearly present information on capoeira art form?
- Does the site communicate the organization’s offerings clearly?
- Does the site present ABA's mission and story in a clear and engaging manner?
- Are ABA's activities, programs, and events accurately presented?
- Are event offerings conveyed in a clear way?
Full List
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Academy site: www.afrobrazilarts.org:
- What is the process of signing up for events like?
- Are all the class offerings of NY mindful capoeira academy clearly communicated?
- Does the site contain all the information regarding a particular class (Instructors and timings, and so on) that the user needs.
Full List
User Outreach
Action Plan:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Students being our stakeholders, we decided to reach out to students who are the closest to ABA’s audience, the primary focus was on high school students, after discussions and consideration of the one week time constraint, the team decided to out reach within Pratt Institute.
Pratt Rec Department
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Pratt’s recreation department brings in various fitness related programs for students, I tried reaching out to Pratt Recreation on behalf of my team. Other Team mates reached out to other departments such as Dance Therapy
Recruiting using Survey:
A Screener Survey within Pratt Institute was sent for potential participants which had questions such as:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Which one of these activities are you interested in?
- Have you ever taken classes for any of the previously mentioned activities?
- What do you know about Capoeira?
Link to Screener Survey
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- After the survey a total of six participants with varying background were interviewed.
Creation of Tasks
Question Guidelines:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Tasks were created, in a way that the user, can start off on the organization website and traverse to the academy website.
Three sets of questions were designed:
- Pre Test Contextual Questionnaire
- Task Based Questionnaire
- Post Test Questionnaire
Contextual Question examples:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Can you tell me about any physical activities you are currently involved in or any you are interested in?
- Describe how you first got to know about the activities you are interested in and/or involved in?
- Have you ever taken classes in these activities before, if so, how did you hear about your academy first?
- What inspired or motivated you to take classes for this particular activity.
Task-Based Questionnaire examples:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- You have recently been introduced to Capoeira, you are trying to find more information to decide if you can get involved. Take a moment to explore the website and describe your initial thoughts.
- What do you think the most important areas of ABA's activity are, is there any info particularly standing out? is there any missing info, etc.
Post Test Questionnaire examples:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Which aspects of the site do you think needs improvement from your experience?
- Which parts of the website according to you were the most useful?
- Would you be interested in taking Capoeira classes after visiting this site, if yes why, if not
Full Task List
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
User Interview & Findings
Methodology :
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Testing was moderated, users were asked to share their screen, and perform the tasks while talking out loud.
- Users were asked consent before recording their screen and voice.
Link to view Interview Recordings and Notes
Key Findings:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Users thought the website was inconsistent.
- The information architecture of the website was confusing to users. They had difficulty navigating the website to find certain information.
- They had difficulty finding enough/relevant information regarding certain topics.
Recommendation guidelines
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
The team then divided the three major sections amongst themselves to make recommendations. I collected findings and made Recommendations for the Classes and Instruction page.
Findings from Current Designs:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Users found it confusing to see Schools and Communities under Classes and Instruction, since they had been differentiated in the menu.
- Many users had difficulty finding and learning about the full range of ABA class offerings.
- Most users lost interest when they couldn't find the class schedule in this section.
- Users reported difficulty finding classes from specific centers and available class offerings due to inconsistent link layouts.
- When attempting to locate the address of the NYC center, many users found it difficult because NYC was listed separately from the other centers.
- A schedule of classes and their locations was missing. Some users reported that Ithaca's class website had more information.
- When users clicked on a link to the NY Mindful Capoeira Center website, they faced difficulty returning to the main site.
- When asked to find the end of school year program, users checked the events tab expecting it to be listed there.
List of Findings Across All Pages
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Recommendations
Redesign:
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Findings:
- A yellow background was added to section headings to improve readability, in varying scenarios.
- Findings suggest that users were not aware of all the choice offerings of ABA, hence a section describing all the classes was added.
- The most expected element from user studies was class schedule, along with class dates, and location, so a calendar view displaying all the classes at all centers was added.
- Users expected to find the end-of-school-year program listed under the events tab, but it was moved to the programs and events tab.
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Based on user feedback, it was found that not all the centers were spotted. Therefore, images of all the center cities were added as symbols.
- Users who clicked on the link to the NY Mindful Capoeira Center website had difficulty returning to the main site. To address this issue, images representing each city were added as button links. This provided a clear signifier for users and streamlined navigation to other sites
- Another use of this section is from the existing site architecture direction which currently has different websites for each branch, this approach ensures all relevant information is provided in their respective websites.
- From competitive analysis and user studies it was found that users gained good insight into the nature of classes from Frequently asked Questions, hence FAQ’s were added, and were added as accordions to save space within the page
Prototype
- Venkat: Walk in interviews with Two interviewees from different age groups, with questions based on context.
- Sami: Two Potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
- Michelle: NYC locals both interested in NYC parks and who are potential park volunteers, with questions both based on context and website navigation.
Link to access Redesigned Figma Prototype
Link to current website
Copyright © 2024