Why Design Inspires: A Museum E-Commerce Re-Design
Background: Conceptual project #2, General Assembly UXDI
My role: UX Researcher, UX designer, Visual Designer
Skills: Research, interviews, affinity mapping, design strategy, sketching, wireframing
Tools: Pen/paper, Sketch, Marvel
Duration: 2 weeks
The Challenge: Using UX design process, design a better shopping experience for the Chicago Architectural Center’s online store. Reimagine the store to increase visibility, traffic, and revenue.
The CAC
The Chicago Architectural Center, or CAC, is a remarkable cultural icon with a brand new building and museum. It is home to 4 large exhibits, including the Chicago City Model Experience, an interactive 3D model of the city including over 4,000 buildings. The Center also hosts over 85 tours in the city, most notably the world-famous River Cruise Tour, which is the #1 tour in Chicago and ranked among the top ten in the world. The mission of the CAC is to “inspire people to discover why design matters”.
Existing Problems
Initial findings from existing website:
<- No direct link to store on CAC homepage
<- Store site: No reference to museum exhibits or tours
<- No indication of best selling items in store
<- No sense of community/membership benefits
The In-Store Community
Research — Exploration
Initial research included a thorough competitive analysis.
“When a museum is successful at boosting online sales, not only does their bottom-line improve, but they increase their reach by selling to a larger and more diverse audience and remain engaged with their community by increasing the number of repeat customers.” — E-commerce Success for Museums
Research — Interviews
Insights
The following insights were derived from the interviews and surveys, after affinity mapping:
- Great architecture inspires creativity.
- Great architecture fosters a sense of connection to self and others.
- People visit museum gift shops because they are at peak inspiration after visiting a museum and its exhibits, and they want something to remember the experience of being inspired.
Therefore
The Design Principles
- The design should reflect the museum-goer’s experience of being inspired by the exhibits and tours.
- The design should reflect a spirit of connection and community to the user.
A recurring theme — Opportunity
Throughout the research it became clear that the River Cruise Tour was a tour that, across the board, everyone who had visited the CAC had taken (nearly everyone I’ve spoken to in general has taken this tour). Moreover, it is ranked among the top 10 tours in the world. I knew there was an opportunity here.
Strategy
New ideas and features were formulated based on 4 criteria:
- Design Principles
- Secondary Research
- Best Practices
- The project Brief
Features — A new flow
From Design Principles:
-> ‘Companion items available to purchase’ section on the river cruise tour page
-> Choice on homepage to continue to ‘Items related to exhibits’ -or- ‘Continue to store’
-> Monthly design challenge: a local artist designs a t-shirt featuring an iconic Chicago school, to promote community building/strengthening
-> Members receive discounts and free shipping to promote membership
-> On each page the Center’s mission statement is prominently placed: ‘Your CAC purchase helps us bring exciting learning experiences to everyone’
From Research:
-> Mission statement and goals of the museum and online store
-> Choice on homepage to continue to ‘Items related to exhibits’ -or- ‘Continue to store’
-> Why shop the CAC? section
From Project Brief:
-> Drop down menu for categories
-> New subcategories such as ‘best sellers’ and ‘featured items’
-> Why shop the CAC? section
From Best Practices:
-> Mission statement and goals of the museum and online store
-> Recreate the museum experience for inspiration recall
-> New subcategories such as ‘best sellers’ and ‘featured items’
The main features of the redesign on the CAC store’s home page included adding several community building sections, including a monthly design challenge where a local artist designs a t-shirt featuring an iconic Chicago school. This was actually an idea Reed, pictured above, had expressed an interest in. The monthly winner’s shirt can be purchased each month. There is also a section on ‘Why Shop the CAC?’, and its mission statement and goals, a video about community involvement, and the history of the online store.
Usability
Clarity and direction was gathered about ideas for visual elements through the usability testing phase, and was conducted on 5 subjects. Originally the ‘companion items’ were on the river cruise tour page, across the bottom below the fold. A few users remarked the feature got lost being so far down, so I decided to put them on the side to the right of the cruise’s description and info. I also changed the design of the pop up on the home page to make it more appealing, as well as a few other small design elements to make the overall appearance more attractive and consistent.
Next Phase
Before this prototype can move on to the next phase, there should be more testing. Another idea to explore is selling ‘experiences’, which is a popular trend. Creating companion apps for tours, with links to related items to purchase in the store could be promising, and if given more time, would be fun to explore.
