National Videogame Museum Heuristic Evaluation

Analysis of the NVM’s website usability to discover the site’s pain points

Overview

The purpose of this study was to examine the usability of the National Videogame Museum’s website using the Heuristic Evaluation method, a type of inspection that reveals potential issues in a website’s interface.

Throughout the evaluation, our team encountered multiple usability issues that made the NVM’s website challenging to maneuver or completely unnavigable in some instances. Discovered problems ranged in severity from minor to exceedingly problematic. Based on our findings, three key recommendations have been compiled that can potentially improve the usability of the NVM’s website:

methodology

This report uses the Heuristic Evaluation method, a process that analyzes an interface’s usability, to review the National Videogame Museum’s website.

my role

I operated as Lead UX Evaluator, in which I wrote the task list, created mock-ups of potential redesigns of website features, and compiled a complete heuristic evaluation report.

In addition to myself, I presented three Secondary UX Evaluators with a scenario and tasks focused on navigating the website as if they were planning a future in-person visit to the Museum.

Additionally, the evaluators used Jakob Nielson’s Ten Heuristics and a severity rating scale to identify any issues that emerged with performing the tasks.

limitations

While the study consisted of four usability experts, only three were able to perform the listed tasks. On October 1st, 2021, the NVM’s website went offline for multiple days.

On its return, only the homepage remained accessible with a header that stated: “We’re currently working on building a better web-site experience for our visitors. Thanks for your patience.”

findings

My UX experts and I uncovered multiple aesthetic and operational issues throughout the National Videogame Museum’s website. The following key findings present related heuristics and recommendations based on our research.

key finding I

H7 | FLEXIBILITY AND EFFICIENCY OF USE

H8 | AESTHETICS AND MINIMALIST DESIGN

Evaluators A, B, and C had difficulty locating the ticket prices. The button at the top of the page that reads ‘Visit the Museum’ links to a ‘Contact Us’ form. The page asks “Looking for hours or ticket prices? Check the home page,” but the homepage only lists the Museum’s hours and an additional ‘Learn More’ button must be clicked to access the ticket prices. Once visitors have found the ticket prices, the webpage alerts them that tickets to the Museum may only be purchased on-site.

recommendation I: share ticket prices on homepage

The NVM should adjust their interface to be more streamlined for online visitors to easily locate the ticket prices by dedicating space on the homepage for the NVM’s ticket prices and membership options.

The Museum would also benefit from allowing visitors to purchase their museum tickets online. Additionally, we recommend changing the ‘Visit the Museum’ button to link to a direct page listing the hours, ticket prices, and memberships instead of the ‘Contact Us’ page.

key finding II

H4 | CONSISTENCY AND STANDARDS

H7 | FLEXIBILITY AND EFFICIENCY OF USE

H8 | AESTHETICS AND MINIMALIST DESIGN

Two evaluators were unable to find the Museum’s current exhibitions. Evaluator C was eventually able to locate the exhibit information from the ‘Events’ link in the navigation bar. However, this was after the evaluator had pressed the ‘Learn More’ button on the homepage, and the ‘Media’ and ‘Education’ links on the navigation bar. The ‘Events’ page itself lacks detailed information or multiple images about the exhibits. Evaluator C believed that the ‘Media’ page would contain videos or other noteworthy content since it was the second link on the navigation bar after the Museum’s mission, instead the page contained links to old news releases.

recommendation II: improve terms used on navigation bar

We recommend that the NVM develop terms that better reflect the content on its website and adjust the titles on the navigation bar to improve its efficiency and ease of use. Creating new terms for the navigation links can make the website’s interface easier for visitors to understand and use. In this re-imagining, certain links have been removed to streamline the navigation bar and new terms have been added to the interface.

key finding III

H1 | VISIBILITY OF SYSTEM STATUS
H5 | ERROR PREVENTION
H9 | HELP USERS RECOGNIZE, DIAGNOSE, AND RECOVER FROM ERRORS

The fourth task asked the evaluators to ‘Locate the news article titled ‘National Videogame Museum Opens Scholarship Program For Young Texan Devs.’ The article is located on a gaming news website, linked from the NVM site. When Evaluators A and B attempted to find the article using the website’s search bar, they were taken to a blank blog post. Evaluator C was able to locate the article on the website’s ‘Media’ page after attempting to find it on the ‘Blog’ page.

There are two main sections on the ‘Media’ page, titled ‘News Releases’ and ‘NVM in the News,’ there is no distinction between the two areas. When clicking an article on the ‘NVM in the News,’ users are redirected to another website without any acknowledgement from the NVM’s interface that they are leaving nvmusa.org.

recommendation III: adjust content on 'Media' page

We recommend that the NVM improve the terminology and content on the ‘Media’ page. Part of this recommendation is related to Recommendation II – the page itself should be renamed to ‘News’ or ‘Press.’ The NVM should also clarify the difference between articles written by the NVM’s staff versus outside news sources, including creating a pop-up window alerting users when they are being redirected to an external website.

Additionally, the ‘Media Gallery’ featured in-between both news sections should be moved to a more appropriate location that would allow the articles to sit closer together.

closing thoughts

The National Videogame Museum’s website faces multiple difficulties that hinder its usability. From frustrating navigational issues to dead end errors, the NVM website would greatly benefit from aesthetic and mechanical improvements to its interface. The NVM should focus its efforts on:

1. Building a dedicated space on the website’s homepage for ticket and membership prices.

2. Streamlining the navigation bar’s design by creating new terminology that better represents the NVM’s webpages.

3. Improve the terminology and content on the ‘Media’ page along with make interface changes that tell users when they are leaving the website.

Although the NVM has already begun rebuilding its website, its crucial to recognize usability issues of the Museum’s previous system. These provided recommendations can help improve the National Videogame Museum’s online presence and standing as an institution.

references

World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience, “10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design,” Nielsen Norman Group, accessed October 8, 2021, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

“Contact Us | NVM,” August 17, 2021,

https://web.archive.org/web/20210817014829/http://www.nvmusa.org/contact- us

“National Videogame Museum Highlights Origins of Videogames,” designnews.com, November 5, 2020, http://www.designnews.com/electronics/national-videogame-museum- highlights-origins-videogames/gallery?slide=1

“NVM,” August 16, 2021,

https://web.archive.org/web/20210816081717/http://www.nvmusa.org/

“Our Mission | NVM,” August 14, 2021,

https://web.archive.org/web/20210814044053/http://www.nvmusa.org/our- mission

World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience, “Severity Ratings for Usability Problems: Article by Jakob Nielsen,” Nielsen Norman Group, accessed October 8, 2021, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-to-rate-the- severity-of-usability-problems/

“The Videogame History Museum,” Kickstarter, accessed October 8, 2021,

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vghmuseum/the-videogame-history- museum.