User Experience / Case Study / User Interface

The Oxford Botanical Gardens is a beautiful historic garden, but its current branding and user interface do not reflect the amazing experience the gardens provide in person. This case study will evaluate the user experience and use background research to develop a new digital strategy to give its online presence new life.

Background

Oxford Botanic Garden, founded in 1621, is the UK’s oldest botanic garden. The Garden is dedicated to educating people about plants, helping plant conservation, supporting education and research, and creating public engagement to inspire visitors.





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Heuristic Analysis

Heuristics: a method of solving problems by finding practical ways of dealing with them, and learning from past experience. I used Jakob Nielsen's 10 Heuristics to analyze Oxford Botanical Gardens' usability for their current design. 

1. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

The abundance of pages in Nav Bar makes it confusing to find the information you need

2. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

The width of the text is too long making it hard to read. Also, repetitive dialogue

3. Match System and the Real World

The language for the types of tickets is inconsistent and confusing

4. Error Prevention

The types of tickets are linkable but all link to the same page which can cause confusion

5. Match System and the Real World

Only some of the photos portray the section they are linking to

6. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

The footer is too crowded - making it hard to find relevant information

1. Consistency and Standards

The Header, Nav Bar, and Footer are not consistent in the website and e-commerce

2. User Control and Freedom

User can not go back to the previous page easily

3. Match System and the Real World

The language for ticket is confusing when trying to buy a product

4. Recognize and Recover from Errors

"Your basket is empty" error is confusing and provides no clarification

5. Error Prevention

The link leads to the Home page which does not have e-commerce features

6. Match System and the Real World

Shop page has links for individual products but they all lead to this main page

User Research

To collect quantitative and qualitative data, I created a user survey completed by three of my classmates who also went to Oxford Gardens.

User Personas

Competitive Analysis

I examined seven different indirect and direct competitors of Oxford Gardens to understand the expectations, gauge competitors, and see how they address our needs. 

Features and Goals

Cohesive Identity
Create a more engaging interface to match the in-person experience

Add Plant Database
Encourages education and supports their values

E-commerce
Intuitive design for tickets and shopping

Reorganize Info
Limit and reorganize info to be more user friendly.

Card Sorting / Information Architecture

Before designing individual screens, I needed to reorganize the website information architecture to be more intuitive and user-friendly. I conducted a card sorting activity with some peers to analyze what cards users grouped together to inform how the update information architecture should behave.

Card Sorting

Information Architecture

Low Fidelity Sketches

Next, I started to do sketches of segments of the website to understand how blocks of elements work together.

Branding

The new website will consist of a new type selection and color structure that meets at least AA accessibility standards. The 12-column grid system provides structure and contestability throughout the website design.

High Fidelity

Home Page

Garden Page