The Ask
Improving the NYC
Tourism digital experience
The Goal
Improving growth
in a post-pandemic era
The Research
Conducting heuristic analysis, and competitor research
Focusing the Heuristic Evaluation at 3 specific criteria
Auditing the Destination
Marketing Organization (DMO) digital experience
Example of NYC Tourism’s severity rating for the Inspirational content page.
Taking a look at NYC Tourism’s indirect competitors
Example of Los Angeles’ inspirational content page severity ratings.
So, what did we find with our in-depth research findings?
The Hypothesis
Using our research insights,
we came up with a hypothesis
Personas and Usability Testing
Creating assumption based personas based on existing user assumptions
Why assumption based personas?
We want to compare the assumptions based personas with the researched based ones after synthesizing our moderated interview findings.
Next Steps: Comparing what is good
From the comparison, we’ll see where NYC Tourism has been in terms of aligning with their user’s needs and behaviours.
Next Steps: Comparing what is bad
We’ll also see which assumptions were proven to be false, and gain insights into what needs to be focused on and addressed for future design implementations.
Personas and Usability Testing
Using the hypothesis to frame scenarios for the moderated usability test
Using the hypothesis that was concluded from the initial UX Heuristic report, I conducted and led the 25 moderated usability interviews at 1 hour long each. 3 hypothesis were used to informed these moderated tests, but for the purpose of this case study, I will focus on the third hypothesis which was:
— Our third user hypothesis
B2B
Meeting Planners
Travel Trade
Press and Media
Members
B2C
Visitors (Tourists and locals from different boroughs)
In Summary that is,
25 hours of user interviews
25 unique users with different goals and needs
5 user groups
Personas and Usability Testing
What we found with the
moderated usability tests
Example of affinity map for NYC Tourism members and partners.
So, what insights did we gain with our moderated usability test?
Users had trouble remembering where they’ve found certain information
Users were completely unaware of so much additional content and features that were useful to them because of the current existing IA structure
Users felt very overwhelmed looking at the site, they often gave up performing certain tasks, and left the site feeling that their time spent was wasted
Some users stated that NYC Tourism’s contents were more engaging and interesting than other compared DMOs websites
The Solution?
Redesign NYC Tourism’s Informational Architecture
After confirming our initial hypothesis using real user data insights and also creating 3 researched based personas, the team and I decided to focus on redesigning NYC Tourism Informational Architecture.
Example of affinity map for NYC Tourism members and partners.
The goal of the IA's redesign is to:
Properly breadcrumbing to give users ability to move between different types of content without getting lost
Better signposting and labelling/copy to clearly indicate new content and useful features
Reducing the breadth of navigation menu and sitemap by merging similar categories helping users understand content organization
The Solution
Showcasing the new NYC Tourism Informational Architecture Menu
After synthesizing the card sort and tree test findings, and looking into 13 other DMOs’ menus for ideation, this the new refined and simplified menu we’ve created.
Example of affinity map for NYC Tourism members and partners.
The Design
Here are the final designs, fully shipped and with updated IA implementations
Working closely with the development and engineering team, the team and I created wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups of the final iteration UI web and mobile designs.
Before
After
Fully Responsive
Mobile Design
