Eric Carle Museum Case Study
CLIENT: Eric Carle Museum
ROLE: UX Designer
TOOLS: Axure, Sketch
TIMEFRAME: Five weeks
THE CHALLENGE
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art tasked us with refreshing their website with the needs of their users in mind while delivering an experience as rich as the physical museum itself. The Carle is a beautiful museum in Amherst, MA and although it displays picture book art specifically, it is a well-respected art museum. Our client wanted a website that was able to balance the colorful artwork they showcase as well as their serious passion for art and literature.
The Carle was assigned as a client to our entire class of UX designers, which meant that the project was split between 5 teams. My team consisted of 4 UX designers, and we were given five weeks to complete our portion of the project. Because the project was split amongst several teams over such a short timeframe, our team performed a refresh of several pages and processes, but we did not refresh the entire site.
APPROACH
Immediately after we were given the brief, we met virtually with nine stakeholders and SMEs from The Carle.
Some of our initial objectives for our SME interviews were:
1
Identify the business goals and needs.
Identify the business goals and needs.
2
Understand how goals may be evolving over time and how the site can support them.
Understand how goals may be evolving over time and how the site can support them.
3
Define the wants, needs and pain points of the site's users and The Carle staff.
Define the wants, needs and pain points of the site's users and The Carle staff.
4
Gain a better understanding of the goals and expectations of the museum's donors.
Gain a better understanding of the goals and expectations of the museum's donors.
“People who know Eric Carle assume that we're a children's museum and we are not. We are an art museum that welcomes children and we're not primarily Eric Carle.” - Andrea, Director of Finance and Administration
Some of our key takeaways from SME interviews included:
The website was too busy, it was visually disorganized and overwhelming.
Regular museum visitors didn’t use the website often. The museum relied on social media for marketing.
Staff was not very technical so they needed a website that they could easily update and curate.
SMEs wanted the site to represent their target audience: adults and scholars.
“I’d like it [website] to be able to give people a feel for this place, because a lot of people when they walk in here, they just have no idea” - Sandy, Marketing Manager
tHE pivot
Our team soon learned that we were being assigned a unique group of users that were not necessarily the typical museum visitors but were indeed very important to The Carle. Our users were the donors. This, of course, meant that we needed to reframe our thinking, and many of our interview questions, to focus on the donors. We wanted to know what made them donate to The Carle specifically, how and how often they donated, and where there was an opportunity for us to improve their experience.
Our team was given 11 users, seven of whom were donors to the museum. I was the recruiter and coordinator for interview participants. I reached out to all of the users from the list that we were given and created a schedule. To keep things streamlined and organized for our team, I set up all of the interviews throughout this project. All of the interviews for this project were conducted remotely, either via phone or through Zoom.
It is also important to mention that we interviewed the non-donors as well, who had similar demographics, because although our focus was current donors, we, of course, wanted to appeal to any potential donors, too.
Our team was given 11 users, seven of whom were donors to the museum. I was the recruiter and coordinator for interview participants. I reached out to all of the users from the list that we were given and created a schedule. To keep things streamlined and organized for our team, I set up all of the interviews throughout this project. All of the interviews for this project were conducted remotely, either via phone or through Zoom.
It is also important to mention that we interviewed the non-donors as well, who had similar demographics, because although our focus was current donors, we, of course, wanted to appeal to any potential donors, too.
Of these seven donors, their demographics were as follows:
Many were retired with a background in education
6 Females
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Most users were married with children
Our key takeaways from the initial meeting with users were:
Users support the museum because of its mission of promoting art and literature.
They mostly donate by mail or in-person.
The donors who did donate online were frustrated by the process.
Donors want people who visit The Carle’s site to get a true feel of the museum.
We made a donation before it was built, just because of the whole concept of it. It just really appealed to me. It was a really cool, positive, amazing thing. - Carla, donor
This was the type of information that we kept getting from donors. They told us that they donated simply because they loved the museum. And that they really just wanted other people to be able to experience the museum, too. It was really tempting to run with this idea at first. It would be simple to think that all donors wanted was to contribute to the museum’s success.
However, we quickly realized that we were not identifying a true need for donors. Although it was technically true that they donated because they loved The Carle and they wanted everyone in the community to enjoy the museum, this was a surface level desire. They were, frankly, too excited about our project and too polite to tell us what they needed. So, it was up to us to take all of this surface level information and dig deeper.
However, we quickly realized that we were not identifying a true need for donors. Although it was technically true that they donated because they loved The Carle and they wanted everyone in the community to enjoy the museum, this was a surface level desire. They were, frankly, too excited about our project and too polite to tell us what they needed. So, it was up to us to take all of this surface level information and dig deeper.
So we went back to the data and we found some new user insights:
Donors needed a more inviting and personal donation process.
They wanted to see what their money was supporting.
Donors wanted their support to be acknowledged.
With this realization and new information, we decided to conduct further domain research and another competitive analysis. This time our focus was specifically on donors and non-profit organizations. We wanted to better understand how to appeal to The Carle’s donors.
We also spoke with another SME, Rebecca, who was the Director of Development at The Carle. She was in charge of all fundraising efforts at the museum. She was able to give us great insight into how donations currently work at The Carle and what steps they’ve taken to appeal to this user base.
We also spoke with another SME, Rebecca, who was the Director of Development at The Carle. She was in charge of all fundraising efforts at the museum. She was able to give us great insight into how donations currently work at The Carle and what steps they’ve taken to appeal to this user base.
Key insights from the Director of Development at The Carle:
Top takeaways from competitors:
Major conclusions from domain research:
People want to know where their donations are going and that they can trust the organization.
Donors expect integrity and transparency.
Donors want to feel their impact and know they're making a difference.
Make sure they know we couldn't do it without them.
solution
With all of these new insights, we created a persona, Carol, as well as a journey map of her experience. We also went back and developed a revised problem statement and design principles which better addressed the donor’s need to feel valued by connecting them to their donations.
Meet our Persona:
Check out Carol's journey:
Revised problem statement:
The enthusiastic museum supporter wants to feel acknowledged and involved with their donations to see how their money helps with the museum's growth because they don't feel recognized or connected to the impact that they have.
With the problem statement, design principles, and our new insights in mind, we started brainstorming solutions. We wanted to develop divergent concepts that addressed our users’ needs while also aligning with the business goals of The Carle. Our goals were clear: We wanted to showcase the importance of donations in different places throughout The Carle’s website and encourage more people to donate, we wanted to give users a place to get information about how to donate and how donations are utilized, and we wanted to make the donation process simple and personalized.
IDEATION & CONCEPTS
Kickstart: A crowdfunding page to connect donors and garner support for specific parts of the museum.
Personal: A personal portal for donors to keep track of their donations and be engaged in the donation process.
Visually Aware: A visually engaging homepage that highlights the importance of donors for the prosperity of the museum.
This was the concept that I developed. Our team wanted to refresh the homepage and this was a way of doing it that also emphasized donations. When donors, or potential donors, visit The Carle’s website I wanted to make them feel engaged and valued right away. The concept expresses to the donor and more importantly, to the community, the importance of donations on the museum’s success.
Appreciation First: An easy streamlined donation process that makes users feel appreciated as if having a conversation.
Customize: A process to help current and potential donors customize their donation experience.
We took our five concepts and conducted concept testing with eight users. All of the users that we interviewed were familiar with the current website and our project specifically. So, we wanted to understand how users felt about the different concepts presented to them. Did it solve a problem for them? Or was there a new problem highlighted by the experience? We also wanted to evaluate whether users wanted a personal or community-driven experience. Our goal was to gain insight into what potential donors would like to see on the site and understand what would encourage them to start donating.
Concept Testing with Eight Users:
6 donors
6 Females
Ages 46-75
Concept testing takeaways:
The importance of donations needs to be visible but genuine on the homepage.
Expressing appreciation immediately made the experience more inviting.
The personal portal needs more purpose than tracking donations to be useful.
Users liked knowing there were other support options beyond monetary donations.
Users didn’t like choosing specific programs to donate to, they trusted the museum.
Expressing appreciation immediately made the experience more inviting.
The personal portal needs more purpose than tracking donations to be useful.
Users liked knowing there were other support options beyond monetary donations.
Users didn’t like choosing specific programs to donate to, they trusted the museum.
Through concept testing, we received some really valuable feedback. Ultimately, we decided not to move forward with the Kickstart Concept or the Personal Concept, but we did take key elements and roll them into the donation process. For my Visual Concept, we received feedback on how to show donor appreciation while making it feel more understated and sincere. Finally, we decided to combine features from both the Appreciation Concept and Customize Concept into a single, streamlined donation process.
RESULTS
Our Final Prototype: The Supporterpillar
Homepage
Includes bold ‘Support’ CTA in the top navigation
Simplified page layout with visual hierarchy
Carousel at the top highlight important exhibits and fundraisers
Includes bold ‘Support’ CTA in the top navigation
Simplified page layout with visual hierarchy
Carousel at the top highlight important exhibits and fundraisers
Support Page
Clear CTA for membership and donations
Features programs and events made possible by donations
Allows donors to choose different ways to support the museum
Clear CTA for membership and donations
Features programs and events made possible by donations
Allows donors to choose different ways to support the museum
Why Your Support Matters
Showcases the importance of donations for the museum's growth
Emphasizes appreciation for donors
Highlights how donations are spent
Showcases the importance of donations for the museum's growth
Emphasizes appreciation for donors
Highlights how donations are spent
Donation Process
A simple, 3-step progressive form
Users can customize certain options
Messages of appreciation display at the top
Contact information at the bottom
A simple, 3-step progressive form
Users can customize certain options
Messages of appreciation display at the top
Contact information at the bottom
Thank You
Display of sincere appreciation
Includes contact information for easy follow-up
Allows for social media sharing
Display of sincere appreciation
Includes contact information for easy follow-up
Allows for social media sharing
A video walkthrough of the prototype can be found here.
We took this prototype into a final round of usability testing and the results provided us with some considerations for the future. We wanted a fresh set of eyes on our designs and a bit more of an outside perspective. So, this time, we expanded our testing participants to include some of the prior users we had tested with previously, as well as two new users who were unfamiliar with The Carle and our project.
Usability testing takeaways and future considerations
1
The “in honor/memory of” notification process should be expanded.
The “in honor/memory of” notification process should be expanded.
2
The rest of the support options need to be fleshed out.
The rest of the support options need to be fleshed out.
3
Consider adding an explanation about restricted donations.
Consider adding an explanation about restricted donations.
4
Re-explore developing a Donor portal.
Re-explore developing a Donor portal.
This was well received and users wanted more options to customize during this step (ie: send e-cards, allow images to be included with messages).
Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to complete this but it received a lot of interest from users.
Although the Kickstart concept originally failed, there was resonance with many users who were interested in supporting more specific fundraisers.
With usability testing, several users again brought up the desire to save or access information in regards to their previous donations.
Throughout the five weeks of the project, we didn’t have much interaction with our clients. Although, the couple of times that we did connect, they were very excited about our work and very eager to have a new website. However, in the end, we weren’t able to present our findings, wireframes or recommendations to them because this project was supposed to be more of a learning experience for us. Once we completed the project they were sent our assets as well as a write up of our future considerations, and I certainly hope that they find it all useful. Our team really enjoyed working on this project and we got a lot out of this experience, so I hope that they did as well.
"I get a sense of appreciation and I feel like I know where my money goes because it is right there in front of me" - Barbara, donor
REFLECTION
The Eric Carle Museum project was a learning experience for me because it was my first project working with actual clients. The methods and structure that we used throughout the project were not new to me, but this time we had real users and we had real business constraints to consider. I took on the role of recruiter and coordinator for our team. These roles come pretty naturally to me and I enjoyed knowing that we had an organized, structured plan in place for our research as well as when we were creating deliverables. It was also during this project that I really discovered my love for UX research and user interviews. Domain research and competitive analyses are really fascinating and it was fun to learn about different non-profits and how they appeal to donors.
As for the user interviews, I found that with each interview I got more and more comfortable. Some of our interviews, particularly concept testing and usability testing, were tricky because they were conducted remotely and most of our participants were not familiar with technology like Zoom. But, we always figured it out. Personally, I was pleased that I was able to leverage my experience as a nurse to connect with the users in an empathetic and meaningful way. With each interview I asked better follow-up questions, I left longer pauses and silences, and I was better able to get users to tell me “why”. I got beyond a lot of the surface level information and into some deeper takeaways. Overall, I’d say that this project resulted in a lot of personal and professional growth.
As for the user interviews, I found that with each interview I got more and more comfortable. Some of our interviews, particularly concept testing and usability testing, were tricky because they were conducted remotely and most of our participants were not familiar with technology like Zoom. But, we always figured it out. Personally, I was pleased that I was able to leverage my experience as a nurse to connect with the users in an empathetic and meaningful way. With each interview I asked better follow-up questions, I left longer pauses and silences, and I was better able to get users to tell me “why”. I got beyond a lot of the surface level information and into some deeper takeaways. Overall, I’d say that this project resulted in a lot of personal and professional growth.