National Geographic Expeditions
National Geographic Expeditions is a part of National Geographic, that aims to inspire people to care about the planet, by providing significant and purposeful opportunities for people to explore.
National Geographic hired me to analyze and assess their desktop website to find any issues users have within the site. The main focus was to look at the pages to see if they meet the standard heuristic practices, analyze their navigation to see if it can be adjusted, as well as looking at the typical user flow. After some research, the overall site had met the standard practices, with some recommendations and the navigation could be adjusted to suit the users needs and understanding.
Users & Audience
The primary user for this site would be someone who loves to travel and goes off the beaten path.
Overview
I focused on studying the site and conducted a heuristic evaluation, as well as card sorting to better understand the users’ insight on the navigation options. During this, I studied the current site map, user flow and then revised the site map based on the research done.
Scope and Constraints
I did this project in the Fall of 2019 and it lasted about a week.
UX process
The first thing I did was to conduct a heuristic evaluation for the site. From this I was able to understand that National Geographic’s Expedition page met the majority of the heuristic standards and usability practices. Overall, the pages met the findability, clarity, communication, usability, credibility, value and the learnability best practices. The biggest issues were found in the accessibility, controllability and the delightfulness of the pages. The main flaw in the accessibility is within the contrast of the colors. Every page had its own issues. The homepage’s text in the upper right corner is too light of a grey and could be changed. The filter options text color in the left panel, and on the top of the trip result page lacks in contrast, which is a major problem as this is something a user would want to access easily to change any trip options. The trip overview page has issues within the left panel, before you hover over the actual wording, the light grey font color makes it hard to see. The same light grey font color is used in the customer service number and in the text found at the top of the screen. All of these can cause issues as it is showing information that users would find important. The same issues came across on the last checkout, G Adventures page. They use the same light grey and added a light blue that both fail the contrast standards for usability testing. The other big issue was found in the controllability on the overall site. Every time you leave the page — exit your browser — and reopen it, a pop up comes up. This modular window is easily exited with a clear x in the upper right corner, but it is not expected and can be found irritating by some users.
Most users wouldn’t necessarily find this site delightful, but it had its moments. The things that really set it apart from other sites, was the fixed trip review box thats scrolls with the user and the use of the map showing the user the path of their trip and what they are expecting. These are great, but there is some room to give a user a little more delight, such as adding some actual photos or gifs from travelers that can really show a new user what this trip has to offer.
Overall, the pages themselves are laid out well, containing the proper information. They stick to the standard hierarchy, font sizes and there is clear symmetry within the information. The site does not put too many distractions on each page, so the user stays on target and meets their goal. These things make for a good experience, and from what I could gather, offers a great space for a user to explore and find out more about what National Geographic has to offer.
Sitemap
After this, I created a site map of the current primary and secondary navigation. This was to better understand the site structure, user flow and set myself up for the card sorting.
User Flow
To better understand how the primary user would navigate the site, I created a user flow, symbolizing each step. The steps proved to be easy and straightforward. There were no unnecessary pages or distractions, allowing the user to smoothly reach their end goal.
Open Card Sorting
Once the site map was laid out, I created index cards from the secondary navigation to start my open card sort test. I changed some wording, so that the users I tested would understand the context a little better. I reached out to 5 of people, who I know like to travel, and asked them to categorize the cards as they felt fit. They each went into this task thinking it would be easier than it actually was and commented that it was harder than expected. One found it fun, and thought it was like a game.
Each user tested, clearly understood that some cards fell into a category like destinations, activities, traveler stories and about me. How they sorted them really showed the words they understood and the ones there were unsure of. Some users categorized the activities by their similarities, like across the sea, or outdoors, while others broke these up by activities and things to explore. One insight that I was able to see, was that the majority of users had put certain cards into a travel method like category. It seemed like they felt these were ways people could travel, as opposed to an overall trip type, like how National Geographic has it now.
Users overall categorized these cards by how they felt they would see them on a site they were searching on. One user was unclear about the directions given and had created a user flow with these cards, but once clarified was able to proceed with the task. He still felt like the categories he created would all be subcategories under the National Geographic mission and then around the world. There were some outliers, because users were unsure of what they meant or because they weren’t similar to the other cards given. I concluded this was because of lack of context and miscommunication in the wording.
After analyzing this research and comparing it to the current site’s organization, I was able to conclude that the destination category was understood and could stay the same. The Trip Types category that Nat Geo currently has, could be unclear and users wanted to split this up by activities and travel option. The Nat Geo Difference section could also be unclear, but it was understood that there should be a section including the Nat Geo information. Get inspired was also understood, but named traveler stories. It seemed clear that it is important for the site to have a section where travelers could share their stories, and most users made this its own section.
From these insights, I proceeded to combine related category names to create the cards for the closed sort. I based this on the majority of similarities, and for anything that was left as an outlier, I looked at the cards within these categories and decided where they fit. Every user had created a destination like category so I left that the same and most created an activity category, so I combined them all into a category named Activities. Since most users created a travel option category, I created one for Trip Types, assuming this would give the user an understanding that cards like, cruises and jets belong here. I then created one called Traveler Stories, since most users had created a section like this. And lastly, I made one called Who We Are, assuming people would know that is where they could find more information about the company.
Closed Card Sorting
With these categories created, I moved onto my closed card sorting. I did not change the wording on the cards themselves, as I wanted to see if I gave the category names if it would be easier to understand. I performed these online and had 7 people take this. Everyone seemed to enjoy this round and put cards where I predicted they would. A couple users wanted to create new categories, like interests or bookings, but I believe that was due to the lack of context. They had understood the overall idea, and that was what was most important.
Again, all of these users had placed these cards based on where they felt they would belong on a site. One even mentioned that she like to test herself and see if she can get to the page she needs by purely using the navigation, and never using the search button, so this was fun for her. It was her process but backwards. This seemed interesting to hear, since the majority of people spoken to, search keywords and never take the time to look on their own.
With this closed sort complete, I organized the findings into a chart to see where cards were placed.
After sorting the cards into the chart above, I summarized them further to show the primary and secondary navigation. I first added the cards that were unanimously added to a category, then I chose the rest based on the majority of where users put them. The few singles I had, I based on the explanation from National Geographic’s site and renamed them. Since I never changed the wording on the cards themselves for the closed card sort, I was able to access that users were unclear about what they meant, with or without the category context and felt they were necessary to change to allow users to fully understand.
Once this chart was created I synthesized the research further and settled on the names for the primary navigation. I kept the majority of them, as the users tested understood what they meant and what sat inside of them, but I edited the Traveler Stories to Travel Chronicles to make it slightly different then a category found within it.
Once the primary and secondary navigation options became clear, I moved onto the revised sitemap. Here I propose the change in both primary and secondary names.
Next steps
The next steps would be to test the revisions made one more time, and then implementing those changes to the actual site. I would fix the contrast issues and remove the pop up from the pages themselves, as well as add a new feature to bring a sense of delight to users browsing the site.
This process proved to be difficult for me, but easier as I reached the next steps. The heuristic evaluation was difficult to process, but I was able to find a rhythm and really dig into the pages. Nothing necessarily popped up for me, which worried me at first, but I was able to see the overall site didn’t have that many issues. Contrast and pop ups were the biggest problems found and are easily fixable. Users had a clear understanding of the navigation provided, but there were some issues within the wording that could be fixed. The site is clear and straight forward. Overall this process was educational, it forced me to look at a site for more than just the meat and see how different people view things. With what I was able to discover, the recommended improvements would make for an even more intuitive site and an incredible travel booking experience. The goal is to make this experience as easy as the planned expedition is.
