【 UI/UX Design | Web Design 】 The Oatland Island Wildlife Center Website Optimization

The Oatland Island Wildlife Center Website Optimization ITGM 715-01 Interactive Web Design Professor Gustavo Delao SCAD | Fall 2019 Alan Liu, Jamie Cheng, Xinyu Wu

Table of Contents 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

Team Members Project Brief Project Plan Web Research & Analysis Web Analysis - Site Maps Comparison Primary Research - Survey / Interview / Observation Key Insights Personas Cardsorting New SiteMap / Information Architecture Sketch Wireframe Style Tiles High-Fidelity Prototype User Testing Using A CMS Appendix

Team Members

Alan Liu

Jamie Cheng

Xinyu Wu

MFA Design Management

MA Industrial Design

MA Interactive Design

MA Design Management

and Game Development

Project Brief With the development of web design and the popularity of mobile devices, the website of the Oatland island wildlife center apparently hasn't satisfied users' needs. In the high competition age on the internet, web design plays an important role to attract traffic and attention. We examined the synthesizing graphic design, interface design and usability principles for the creation of an interactive website.

In addition, as the process of research and analysis, we reframed the site map and visual style through deeply understanding user experience and behaviors. Our goal was to design and construct an interactive website that is user-efficient and aesthetically pleasing while communicating clearly to users.

Project Plan Web Research & Analysis

Card Sorting

High-Fi Prototypes

System Usability Scale

Sketches

User Testing

Interview

Wireframes

Google Analytics

Observation

Content Strategy

Proposal

Proto Personas

Style Tiles

Web Research & Analysis In the beginning, through understanding Google keyword research, we found out the keywords that visitors usually searched by so we were trying to search our subject matter website from Google engine through these keywords. However, in some keywords, they didn't have a clear advantage so their visitors might be navigated to the competitors' websites. In addition, we also found their domain name of the main page is long and complex, which is not easy to be searched and also has a negative effect on their Google SEO. Oatland Island Wildlife Center: http://internet.savannah.chatham.k12.ga.us/schools/oat/default.aspx One of Competitors Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (Savannah U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service): https://www.fws.gov/refuge/savannah/ *The New Domain Name We Choose and Bought: http://savannahwildlifecenter.com/

Web Research & Analysis When we reviewed the website of the Oatland Island Wildlife Center, we found lots of complex contents on the homepage, and there are multiple buttons navigating to the same pages, which does not very make sense.

In addition, there is a completely different style of sub-website for their Birthday page with a totally different domain name, which could mislead visitors because of inconsistency.

Web Analysis Site Map - Oatland Island Wildlife Center

Through the site map comparison and card sorting, we reframed and optimized the site map. These steps helped us develop a humanized website that navigates users to what they are seeking.

Web Analysis Site Map - Friends of Oatland (Sub-website of Oatland Island Wildlife Center)

Web Analysis Site Map - Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (Savannah U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Primary Research

Usability Survey

Interview

Observation

Primary Research - Usability Survey Through the usability survey, most people didn’t think they would keep using this website, because they feel it wasn't easy to use complex and inconsistency interfaces. Furthermore, they didn’t feel confident to browse the website while they felt they might need extra knowledge to understand this website.

Therefore, creating a simple and user-friendly website is a crucial element to maintain competitive advantage on the internet.

Primary Research - Usability Survey

Primary Research - Usability Survey

Primary Research - Interview - Questions We not only interviewed visitors but also asked the staff in the center for deeper circumstances, such as the channels of advertisement, the time of popularity, and the target visitors. The primary visitors are tourists; the secondary is people who live around this area.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

Why do you come here?

Who are you coming with?

How did you know about this place?

What information did you need before coming here?

What kind of channels did you use to get the information?

Why did you choose this channel?

How did you feel this channel?

Did you visit their website?

How did you feel about the website?

What kind of information did you get from the website?

Do you have specific things you want to see/do here?

What do you expect from today's visit?

Primary Research - Interview - Responses

Tourists

Locals

Staff

"We heard this place from my friends’ recommendation, and then I looked at their website only for finding the address, so I didn’t feel that I captured any other useful information. In addition, we didn’t realize that they have social media. "

"We come here once or twice a month. We just live around here so it is easily walked by so we have never looked at their website. ”

"We have multiple channels to attract visitors, such as partnerships with hotels or tours and the advertisements on the magazines, but we think right now more and more people get information from social media so we are trying to work on our social media as well. Overall, our main visitors are combination of locals and tourists, and the number is half and half, but it also depends on the seasons. "

Primary Research - Observation As our observation, most visitors were families, and the averaged age was older.

There was diverse information regularly provided by the center, such as the latest maps, events, volunteering, etc. However, most visitors only understood when they actually came to the center or when they received physical flyers.

Key Insights Based on the primary research, visitors desire to see a clear and understandable website, which means simple and consistent. If the website is hard to read or hard to find out, they might quickly move away and never come back again.

For the center, they not only hope this information can be captured by target visitors but also more potential visitors such as the tech-savvy younger generation. However, the uncompetitive domain name and the complex web design are hard to attract the younger generation. These two elements are also highly associated with the traffic of the website and the efficiency of the website. Overall, how to keep the traffic to your website is a significant issue for surviving on the internet and market nowadays.

Personas Johnson Couple Members: Mr. Johnson & Mrs. Johnson

Smith Family Members: Alan Smith, Sophia Green & Morty Smith

Age: 62 & 60 Age: 32, 33 & 2 Hobbies: Travel, hike, sightsee We love to travel around and have a visit to different kinds of parks and animals.

Both of us love animals and we want to embrace nature every day since we are retired. We know different parks and zoos from our friends, but their information is sometimes inaccurate. We seldom use websites to look for information because they are difficult to use. We are now seeking more interesting places and a way to understand what’s happening.

Hobbies: Walk, travel, visit Since our kid is too young, we don’t travel far away from home. Morty pretty likes animals so we always go to the animal center. We hope to take our kid to join more zoo events and educate him on how to get alone well with the world and nature.

Cardsorting

New Sitemap / Information Architecture

Sketch

Sketch

Wireframe

Wireframe

Style Tiles

High-Fidelity Prototype

A user-friendly responsive website with concise and consistent interfaces to create an efficient and effortless experience toward users.

User Testing During the process of prototyping, we conducted user testing multiple times to gather feelings and feedback when users were browsing our website and then we further improved our web design. Based on the feedback, we fixed the issues that users raised. For example, some layouts of the website and proportions of pictures couldn’t perform well on smaller screens like mobile devices. In addition, we also adjusted color segmentations on some pages according to users' feelings.

In general, users mentioned that the new website we created is much better than the original one because it is visually and structurally easy to read and is efficient and effortless for them to find what they were looking for. Moreover, the website is more appealing than before so it keeps attracting their attention to stay longer and enhances their curiosity about the Oatland Island Wildlife Center.

Using A CMS We are using Joomla as a content management system(CMS). It is open-source, has a lot of free support and offers many themes and features that will make it easier for the Oatland Island Wildlife Center to post content in the long run.

Appendix

THANK YOU!

ITGM 715-01 Interactive Web Design | SCAD | Fall 2019 | Professor Gustavo Delao | Alan Liu, Jamie Cheng, Xinyu Wu