Usability TestPrepared by M. Pospisil, Oct. 21, 2015

Usability Test for UnionStation.org

Test Preparation

To prepare to conduct the usability tests, I visited UnionStation.org on my HP EliteBook

laptop using Google Chrome for my browser. I walked myself through each task and noted what

happened as I tried to complete them. Those notes are below.

Task 1: You are bringing your grandmother to Union Station for a Sunday afternoon

outing. She can’t walk more than about 50 steps at a time. Determine whether or not there

will be a wheelchair available for her to use during the visit.

I initially clicked on “Plan Your Visit” in the main navigation. This brought me to a page

with admission information, hours, maps, parking information, and amenity information. The

section titled “Amenities and Transportation” was closest to what I believed I was looking for. It

was at the very bottom of the page. I am concerned this may deter visitors from finding the

information. The information under this section is very brief, providing a link to another more

detailed page. Wheelchairs are mentioned, but in just one word and in the middle of the

paragraph. Visitors could easily miss that crucial word. Clicking on the link “Guest Amenities”

took me to a page with more information on things like ATMs, Lost and Found, and

Wheelchairs. There I found the answer to the task, although it is somewhat ambiguous. It gives

the location where wheelchairs can be picked up but states that wheelchairs “are available on a

first come first serve basis for our guests at no extra charge.”

Task 2: You want to plan to see an Extreme Screen movie during your visit, so you want to

secure tickets in advance. Determine what is playing on Wednesday, November 25.

From the “Guest Amenities” page, I clicked on “Plan Your Visit.” Near the top of that

page, in the Admission Information section, are ticket prices for various parts of the station,

including the Reigner Extreme Screen Theatre. To the far right of the prices is a link where I was

prompted to “Buy Tickets.” I clicked on this and it took me to a page listing movies. I was

initially unsure of how to find out which movies would be playing on Wednesday, November 25

until I noticed that below each movie section to the right was a timeline of when they would be

playing; for example: “10/13/2015 To 4/2/2016.” I determined that Robots 3D and Jerusalem

will be playing on November 25.

Task 3: Go through the steps of buying two tickets for an Extreme Screen movie on that

day. Determine whether or not you can choose the actual seats so that you and your

grandmother will have wheelchair-compatible seating.

I chose to buy tickets for Robots 3D. I first clicked on a button that said “Add to Basket”

under the Robots 3D picture and description. On the next page, when prompted to enter the date I

wanted to purchase tickets for, it gave me a drop-down list of dates such as “Tues 11/3/2015.”

This was hard to read and confusing to pick to correct date in a huge list of numbers. After

finding the correct date, I clicked another “Add to Basket” button which then took me to another

page where I chose how many tickets I wanted. On the next page, I was provided with the total

amount. There was a small button near the top of “My Tickets” section that said “Select Seats”

with an icon of a mouse choosing from a row of boxes. I clicked on this and was taken back to

the previous page where I chose the number of seats I wanted. I initially thought I did something

wrong and so repeated this action. However, the same thing happened and I realized this was

simply a misdirection. I determined that users cannot choose specific seats when buying tickets

online.

Task 4: You’d like to spend time walking around Union Station during your visit, but you

want to be sure enough areas of the station will be wheelchair-friendly. Go through the

steps to send an email to the appropriate person/department to inquire about wheelchair

access throughout all areas of Union Station.

It was hard to maneuver back to the home page. Clicking on the logo at the top of the

page did not bring me back home. The site I was on was a separate site from UnionStation.org

with the address BoxOffice.UnionStation.org. I had to reenter the address to get back to the

actual site. After returning to the home page, I clicked on “Contact” in the main navigation. This

page had the phone number of Union Station and a list of emails for different departments. I was

unsure of which department would be the best to contact. I decided on “Visitor Relations.” I

clicked on the provided email address and an email message popped up with the address already

entered.

Choosing Participants

Tester 1: Krystal Brier

Krystal Brier is a 19 year old female. Ms. Brier is from Cameron, Missouri, a small town.

She is currently a student at Northwest Missouri State University. She is also a Resident

Assistant in Hudson Hall on campus. Krystal spends an average of 24 hours a week using the

web. She estimates that the split between browsing and social media is 50/50. Some of her

favorite websites are Facebook.com, Buzzfeed.com, and Pinterest.com. She has never visited

UnionStation.org. When asked if she considered herself a high-experience or low-experience

user of the internet, she hesitated but said high-experience. After a moment, however, she said,

“Maybe I would be medium? But that isn’t an option, so high.” Although she self-identified as a

medium-to-high-experience user, based on Krystal’s previous interaction with the web and her

low experience with the site she is my low-experience tester.

Environment for Tester 1

Location of the test: I went to Ms. Brier’s residence hall room on the second floor of

Hudson Hall. Ms. Brier spends most of her free time in her room and goes there to relax.

When she is out of her room, she is at class, at meetings, working on school work, or

interacting with residents. Her room is the one place where she can have privacy and

wind down from the day. It is where she spends the most time browsing and web. She sat

in her rocking chair while I conducted the test, as that is the spot in her room she most

often uses her computer.

Physical environment: Ms. Brier’s room was not messy and well-lit. The test was

conducted in the afternoon and all the blinds were open so the sunny day lit the room

well. She thought perhaps her air-conditioning was broken because the room was

uncomfortably warm. Ms. Brier had her phone on the arm of the chair at her disposal, but

it did not ring during the test. I suspect, however, that had it rang or vibrated, she would

have checked it.

Technical environment: Ms. Brier used an HP EliteBook for the usability test – the one

provided by the university to every student. She was connected to campus Wi-Fi, which

was working pretty well on the day of the test. Campus Wi-Fi has a bad reputation of

being slow. The browser she used was Google Chrome. The only browser add-on was Ad

Blocker. Her screen resolution was 1366 x 768.

Tester 2: Jack Waldo

Jack Waldo is a 21 year old male. He is active force in the Navy and his job title is

Aviation Electronic Technician. He is from Omaha, Nebraska but is stationed in Virginia Beach,

Virginia. Per week, Jack spends approximately 40 hours on the internet. He says 70% of that

time is spent on social media, while 30% consists of browsing the web. Some of his favorite

websites are Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. He had not visited

UnionStation.org before, but he remarked that it reminded him of the Durham Museum in

Omaha – another train-station-turned-museum that can be rented out for events. He has visited

the DurhamMuseum.org before. Jack called himself a very high-experience user. I agree, and

consider him to be my high-experience tester based on his extensive use of the internet, his job,

the many add-ons he had enabled on his computer, and his knowledge of a similar venue.

Environment for Tester 2

Location of test: The test was conducted at Jack’s parent’s house in Omaha, Nebraska.

Although he technically lives in Virginia, he feels extremely at home in his parent’s

house. This is where he gets to relax when he is home. Jack sat on a couch in his living

room for the test.

Physical environment: The environment of this test was full of distractions. The TV was

playing Lord of the Rings, his three dogs were roaming around, and people were walking

in and out of the room as the test went on. The TV sometimes made it hard to hear each

other speak, which was definitely an obstacle to the test. I also think this would be a

distraction during his normal browsing experience. He had his phone in his pocket, but

did not check it during the test. He self-identified to me as “an extremely plugged-in

person,” so I believe in a normal situation he would have checked his phone at least once.

The test was conducted in the early afternoon, and it was a particularly nice day out so

the doors and windows were all open, providing nice natural lighting.

Technical environment: Jack used a MacBook Pro for this usability test. His browser

was Google Chrome and it had multiple browser add-ons. One add-on was Google

Hangouts, a messaging app. Another was Motorola Connect, which allows the user to see

incoming texts and calls through Google Chrome. He also had Google Cast as an add-on

which connects to Chromecast through Chrome. Finally, he had Destiny Item Manager

which is an app for the video game Destiny. Jack was connected to the Wi-Fi in his

house, which he noted is really fast.

Test Results

Initial Site Thoughts

Tester 1 Report: To get to UnionStation.org, Krystal typed “union station” into the

search bar and clicked on the website’s link from Google. The page took roughly 2

seconds to load and Krystal did not comment on the load time. Krystal noted the

following about the site, “Wow, colorful. I can look at events, plan to go to the Union

Station I guess, and I could connect with them. I can look at news, like announcements

about Science City and daVinci. I can explore. They have restaurants, that’s cool! Oh, I

like these banners that list the restaurants. That’s a cool design. There’s the hours and

maps, that’s really nice to have. There’s a lot of information on this one page. But it’s

mapped out nicely.” Krystal took her time looking at each aspect of the page and scrolled

through the whole front page. She scrolled using the tracking pad, which she did for the

entire test. Her facial expressions during this part were pretty neutral, except for a bit of

interest when she noticed the restaurants.

Tester 2 Report: After I read the site name out loud, Jack typed “unionstation.org” into

the search bar. It took the site 1 second to load. Upon arriving at the site, Jack

commented, “There’s a lot of colors. There’s 6 pretty easy tabs up top.” At this point I

asked him what he meant by easy and he said, “I mean that you know what they will

entail when you click on them.” He then continued commenting, saying, “There’s a note

at the bottom of the screen that has a note about an upcoming closing. There’s a brief

news section and a brief about us section. It has visitor info with maps, tickets, and hours.

The bottom of the website has generic things that are on the bottom of websites. It’s a

pretty decent website. I would say the slide at the top of the site stays too long, though. It

should stay no longer than six seconds since there’s no big information being told, just

pictures. I wouldn’t have even really known it was a slideshow if I didn’t look at it for

long enough. The fonts are easy to read. And the colors are neutral except for the

slideshow up top.” Jack used the tracking pad of his laptop to scroll, as he did for the

entire test. The fact that he was already making suggestions proved to me that he was

going to be my high-experience user.

Task 1: You are bringing your grandmother to Union Station for a Sunday afternoon

outing. She can’t walk more than about 50 steps at a time. Determine whether or not there

will be a wheelchair available for her to use during the visit.

Tester 1

Krystal immediately started scrolling after I read the task. She scrolled to the bottom and

clicked on the “About Union Station” link. She scrolled through that page and said “There’s

nothing there.” She scrolled to the bottom of the “About Union Station” page and clicked on the

“Building Map” link. She said was looking for places wheelchairs could go. She asked me to

restate the question, so I did. She was very flustered at this point, squinting her eyes at the screen

a lot. She kept looking at the map for a place where wheelchairs would be located. The said

“Well there isn’t even an elevator here so I don’t know why they would have wheelchairs.” She

returned to the home page and said “I don’t know.” I asked her what she would do next if she

was stuck but really wanted to find out and she said, “I would probably call them,” but as she

said that she scrolled to the bottom again and said, “Wait, guest amenities!” She clicked on that

link and upon arriving at the “Guest Amenities” page, looked and scrolled and found the

“Wheelchairs” section. She read it and said “What if we came late and there were no

wheelchairs?”

Answer: They do have wheelchairs, first come first serve.

Completed: Yes.

Tester 2

After I read the task, Jack said “Oh man,” like he was unsure of what to do. But he

immediately scrolled to the bottom and looked at the available links. He hovered briefly over

“Facility Rentals” but ultimately, and pretty quickly, right-clicked on “Guest Amenities” and had

it open in a new tab. I asked him if he was considering clicking on another link and he said, “If

this doesn’t work, I will probably go back and click on ‘Facility Rentals.’” However, he found

the “Wheelchairs” section right away on the page and said “That was pretty easy, maybe I got

lucky.”

Answer: There are wheelchairs to use on a first come first serve basis.

Completed: Yes

Recommendations to improve UX for this task:

Krystal spent a good five minutes browsing the site to find the information she was

looking for. Jack spent less time, but still was unsure if he “Guest Amenities” would provide the

answer he was looking for. Many users will come to UnionStation.org in search of a specific

piece of information. Due to this, I would recommend UnionStation.org add a search function to

their website. A search bar in the upper-right hand corner of the website would be extremely

useful to users. If a search bar existed, Krystal could have easily typed “wheelchair” into it and

found the results much faster. A search bar would enhance the heuristic of Flexibility and

Efficiency of Use. It is true that some users might prefer to browse the site and wouldn’t mind

spending a few extra minutes interacting with the content. But for the fast-paced user with not a

lot of time, a search bar would allow them to speed up their interaction and ultimately make their

experience more pleasing.

A second recommendation I have is to explicitly say how many wheelchairs they have

available. Giving the user a specific number will allow them to gauge if one will be available

when they arrive. If Union Station only has one wheelchair, the chance of getting one will be

much riskier than if they have ten. I just believe this would be something to be transparent about

in order to help the user even a little.

Task 2: You want to plan to see an Extreme Screen movie during your visit, so you want to

secure tickets in advance. Determine what is playing on Wednesday, November 25.

Tester 1

Krystal said, “I remember seeing something about tickets,” and went back to the home

page. She scrolled down to the section with banners and under the one labeled “Screens &

Stages” found the Reigner Extreme Screen Theatre. She clicked on this and found that this page

had primarily general information about the theatre, like features of the screen and projectors.

She said, “I don’t think there’s any ticket stuff here.” She clicked on the red button labeled

“More Info” without really reading the text above it and that took her to a page where she could

request to rent out the theatre for an event. She backed out and tried to click on “Events Here”

but it was just text. She then clicked on, underneath the “Events Here” headline, a specific movie

- Jerusalem. At this point, Krystal was getting frustrated. She read the dates it would be playing

and said, “Well it doesn’t say it won’t be playing on November 25.” She hit the back button and

did the same for Robots 3D and The Martian. Through this time-consuming and clunky action,

she determined that Robots 3D and Jerusalem would be playing on November 25.

Answer: Robots 3D and Jerusalem will play on November 25.

Completed: Yes

Tester 2

Jack closed out of the “Guest Amenities” page he had opened on a new page, and back on

the home page clicked on the top tab “Plan Your Visit.” He scrolled down and determined that

the whole Union Station would be open on November 25. He then said, “I don’t think I can do

anything else useful here.” So he clicked on the top tab “Events Calendar.” He maneuvered it to

November 25. He initially clicked on Robots 3D, but then said, “Well if it shows up here, it must

be playing that day,” so he clicked the back button. He then looked at the other movies listed for

November 25 and said, “So…Robots 3D and Jerusalem will be playing.”

Answer: Robots 3D and Jerusalem.

Completed: Yes

Recommendations to improve UX for this task:

The “Plan Your Visit” tab is useful for this task, but it was not utilized by either tester.

Jack actually went to that page, but did not believe he could buy do anything on it besides look at

hours, pricing, and some other information. The “Buy Tickets” portion of the “Admission

Information” table is far to the right of the table, and the icons that lead a user to actually buy

tickets are a faded gray color. I would suggest making the “Admission Information” table shorter

lengthwise and changing the button color to red. Below is a very rudimentary example of what

that could look like.

Original Admission Information Table

Another recommendation I have for this task to improve UX is to revise the wording of

“Plan Your Visit.” I understand why they chose that language, but I am not sure that it connects

well with users. Krystal did not once consider it for this task and Jack clicked on it, but was

confused by the content. The wording also makes it seem like the page will have more

interactive features, which it does not. I would recommend changing the name of that tab to

“Visit Us.” This more accurately describes what the user will find on the page: ticket prices,

maps, and hours. Changing the wording would improve the heuristic Match Between System and

the Real World. It is important to speak the user’s language. I would not be surprised if

UnionStation.org believed themselves to be doing so by using the wording of “Plan Your Visit,”

but the testers did not respond to it.

Additionally, Krystal struggled a lot with this task and that stemmed from her initial click

on the link “Reigner Extreme Screen Theatre.” Her experience would have been much quicker

had that page had a red button labeled “Buy Tickets” on it. It only makes sense to have that

function available on a page dedicated to the Extreme Screen. Most people will want to buy

tickets, not look at specs.

Revised Admission Information Table

Task 3: Go through the steps of buying two tickets for an Extreme Screen movie on that

day. Determine whether or not you can choose the actual seats so that you and your

grandmother will have wheelchair-compatible seating.

Tester 1

From the page she was on, “Reigner Extreme Screen Theatre,” Krystal clicked on The

Martian. She then remembered that she had decided in the last task that that movie would not be

playing on November 25. She backed out and then noticed the “Events Calendar” tab at the top

and said, “Oh, look at that! Jeez, that would’ve been nice.” She clicked on it and maneuvered the

calendar to November 25. From there she chose Jerusalem and clicked the red “More Info”

button underneath it. On the next page, she clicked “Buy Tickets.” On the next page, she said,

“All I can do is add to basket” in a puzzled tone, and then asked “Do I have to be a member? Oh,

wait, no.” I asked her why she thought that and she said because of the gray banner at the top that

said “Members must be logged in to see discounts shown in shopping cart.” But she clicked the

red “Add to Basket” button. She was then prompted to enter the date. She scrolled through the

dates and said out loud “Eleven twenty-five” before choosing the correct date. I asked her why

she said that out loud and she said, “It’s kinda confusing to have to put it in number form.” After

she chose the day, she hit an “Add to Basket” button again. Next she selected the number of

tickets. Then she said, “I guess I can’t choose seats,” but I prompted her to keep following the

process. The next page was the checkout page. She saw the “Select Seats” link and icon and

clicked on it. When it redirected her to the page where she chose the number of seats, she said “I

guess it doesn’t work.”

Answer: You cannot choose specific seats.

Completed: Yes

Tester 2

Jack chose Robots 3D from the “Events Calendar” page. He clicked the red “More Info”

button and then clicked the red “Buy Tickets” button. He was prompted to choose the date and

he said, “This is annoying. I already told them which date I wanted when I chose it on the

calendar!” After choosing the date, he clicked the “Add to Basket” button and said, “I can’t

choose my seats.” I told him to keep going. So he chose 2 tickets and clicked “Add to Basket”

again. On the next page, the checkout page, he saw the “Select Seats” link right away and clicked

on it. He said, “Oh, weird. Hold on, let me do it again. It redirected me.” He scrunched up his

face in a confused, concentrated face. He actually clicked “Select Seats” three times just to make

sure it wasn’t working and he said, “It seems like the website is broken.” He then clicked on

“Assign Owners” to see if that would let him pick the seats, but he determined it would not. He

said, “Okay let me try another movie. Maybe because this one is 3D?” He went through the

whole process again with Jerusalem but decided it was not possible.

Answer: It is not possible to select specific seats.

Completed: Yes.

Recommendations to improve UX for this task:

The process the testers went through for this test was very clunky. Both Krystal and Jack

had to click a version of an “Add to Basket” button three times in order to get to the checkout

page. The number could have been reduced if the page the user chooses the date also included

choosing how many tickets they want to buy. This will expedite the user’s interaction.

Another feature that made this process clunky was that the user chose the date through a

drop-down selection full of dates like “Wed 11/25/2015.” This made choosing a date not as easy

as it could have been. I recommend UnionStation.org change their drop-down selection to a

calendar selection. Below is an example of a calendar selection used by AMCTheatres.com. This

allows users to easily and visually select the day they are looking for.

I believe adding a calendar function would improve the heuristic of Error Prevention. In a drop-

down selection full of numbers, it would be extremely easy to choose the incorrect date. With a

calendar, the visual aspect helps the user see both the day of the week and the actual date.

Finally, the actual goal of this task was to select specific seats that would be wheelchair

accessible. This is not currently possible, as both testers determined. However, the frustrating

aspect is that it seems like it is possible because of a small icon labeled “Select Seats.” Below is

a screenshot showing the icon, which is circled.

Both testers clicked on this believing it would allow them to choose specific seats. What it

actually did was take them back to the page where they selected the number of tickets they

wanted to buy. They both repeated the action, perhaps believing it was their own mistake.

However, they ultimately put the blame on the website itself, with Jack saying, “It seems like the

website is broken,” and Krystal saying, “I guess it doesn’t work.” This needs to be changed in

some way. I would recommend first that they do put in a function where the user can choose

specific seats to buy. This will aid people with disabilities and make their site, and theatre, more

inclusive. If, for some reason, this is not possible, then the name of the icon needs to be changed

to something like “Select Number of Tickets” to accurately represent what will happen when the

user clicks on it.

Task 4: You’d like to spend time walking around Union Station during your visit, but you

want to be sure enough areas of the station will be wheelchair-friendly. Go through the

steps to send an email to the appropriate person/department to inquire about wheelchair

access throughout all areas of Union Station.

Tester 1

To begin the task, Krystal clicked on the Union Station logo at the top of the page she

was on. She realized it was not a link to the home page and so clicked the back button roughly 4

times to get back to the actual site. She clicked on the “Contact” tab in the top row of tabs. Upon

arriving at the “Contact” page she said, “Whoa, that’s a lot of emails.” Her initial reaction was to

say, “I don’t think there’s a specific email for this,” but after a few more seconds scrolling, she

said, “Oh – Visitor relations, that’s what I would email.” She clicked on it and a blank email

from her school account popped up.

Answer: I would email the visitor relations email account.

Completed: Yes.

Tester 2

Jack tried clicked on the Union Station logo at the top of the page once, and then twice

quickly, but saw it didn’t link to anything. He audibly sighed and then clicked the back button to

get back to the home page. He scrolled to the bottom of the page and clicked on “Contact Us.”

At this page, he looked at all options and said, “Visitor Relations seems like my best bet.” He

clicked on their email and because he didn’t have email set up on his computer, it opened up his

email app and prompted him to set up an account. He said he would copy the link and paste it

into an email via his Gmail account.

Answer: Visitor Relations.

Completed: Yes.

Recommendations to improve UX for this task:

The biggest issue I noticed for both testers when trying to complete the task was that the

logo at the top of the page of the BoxOffice.UnionStation.org site did not link back to

UnionStation.org. Clicking that logo was both tester’s instinct for how to get back to the home

page. The fact that the logo does not link to the home page violates Jakob Neilsen’s usability

heuristic of User Control and Freedom. This heuristic means that website should give users an

“emergency exit” for when/if they make mistakes. By not giving the user an easy way to back

out of the BoxOffice.UnionStation.org site, UnionStation.org is inconveniencing them. Clicking

the back button four or five times in a row was annoying to the testers and is a difficult method

to employ when trying to return to a specific page.

Both testers completed this task the quickest and easiest out of the four tasks. However, I

still believe improvements can be made. Krystal struggled the most trying to find the correct

department to contact, making comments like, “Whoa, that’s a lot of emails,” and, “I don’t think

there’s a specific email for this.” Even Jack, who found the Visitor Relations email quickly, said,

“Visitor Relations seems like my best bet,” indicating that he wasn’t one hundred percent

positive. I have two recommendations to improve user experience in this instance. First, I would

suggest adding a short description of that department under the department name. This will help

the users understand exactly who they will be emailing, and if that department is the right one to

contact. Second, I suggest that the emails appear elsewhere in the website. For instance, the

Visitor Relations email could appear on the “Guest Amenities” page. This would simplify the

process for the user. They could go from reading about the availability of wheelchairs directly to

emailing the correct department – instead of clicking to the “Contact” page. It would also ensure

that users are emailing the correct department because the website would put the emails in the

appropriate places. Below is an example of how this recommendation might look, with the

changed section circled.

Testing Conclusions

Completion Rate:

Both Krystal and Jack had a 100% completion rate, completing four out of four

tasks. This is much higher than the average task completion rate of 78%. There are a few

things I believe contributed to this high completion rate. First, I think Krystal would have

given up on the first and third task had I not encouraged her to keep going. I felt that from

pushing her to keep going, I would gather more information from the test and better see

potential areas for improvement on the site. Jack also might have not completed the third

task because he said “I can’t choose my seats,” but I encouraged him to keep going by

telling him to pretend he really wanted to see this movie.

Similarities and Differences:

The two testers were different in many ways. Krystal, when trying to find

information, operated basically off the content of the home page. She did not use the top

tabs or the bottom links, but clicked on items on the body of the home page. Jack mainly

utilized the links on the bottom of the page. That was where he immediately looked when

presented with a new task. I found this discrepancy interesting and believe it shows their

different levels of experience with the web. Krystal’s method was slower and less

productive than Jack’s. He knew the important links would be at the bottom and in used

them heavily in lieu of a search bar.

Additionally, Jack’s test was simply quicker than Krystal’s by about 15 minutes.

He moved around quickly on the site and seemed more comfortable interacting with it.

Krystal was more likely to stumble upon an answer by accident, whereas Jack purposely

found answers by his own actions. Again, I believe this shows the difference in their

experience level.

There were similarities between the two, though. Many of their sentiments about

the website were similar: the fact that the logo on the BoxOffice.UnionStation.org site

didn’t link to the home page and that the “Select Seats” function did not work were

frustrating to both. An interesting similarity between the testers is both of them were

impatient. Krystal, for the first task, did not listen fully and started doing a different task

– looking for wheelchair accessibility instead of finding out if wheelchairs would be

available. Jack often would start clicking before I finished reading the entire task; for task

three I had to ask him to wait until I was finished to start looking around. Krystal also

was quick to frustration when doing the tasks and almost gave up multiple times. Jack

faced less frustration as he completed the tasks easier, but he became noticeably agitated

when the website did not work the way he wanted to. Both Krystal and Jack were relaxed

and not in stressful situations during the tests, so I believe their frustration came purely

from the tasks and website. Users have low patience and it is extremely important to

remember that when building and designing websites.

Heuristic done well:

One heuristic UnionStation.org does well already is Aesthetic and Minimalist

Design. The initial reaction of the site from both testers was extremely positive. The

above the fold of UnionStation.org is powerful and eye-catching. Having a slideshow

with large, colorful graphics draws the eye. An example of the slideshow is shown below.

However, even as you scroll down, the aesthetic remains. The website uses a neutral

color pallet of gray, tan, and red. The red is used sparingly, primarily for buttons like

“More Info” or “Buy Tickets.” This coloring of the website is appealing to the eye and

does not overwhelm.

The most important aspect of this heuristic, though, is that the content of the site

is necessary and relevant. The “Visitor Info” section on the home page is a great example

of the minimalist design utilized on this site.

As shown above, this section is extremely helpful to users looking to physically visit

Union Station. It is full of information, including hours, a map, parking information, and

ticket information. However, it does not look cluttered and there is no irrelevant content.

There are buttons that can lead users to other pages that go deeper into the subjects, but

this is a solid, succinct overview on the home page.

Another example of UnionStation.org’s minimalist design can be seen on their

“About Us” page. It is designed well and shows their personality.

Above is a screen shot of the first section of the “About Us” page. It is a simple design

that looks clean and professional. The use of a blueprint as the feature picture shows their

strong connection to their history and roots. And the copy underneath is descriptive,

engaging, and simple. It is not necessarily functional copy, but it does work to describe

the environment and experience of Union Station – adventurous, historical, and inclusive.

This page is aesthetically appealing but there is also a purpose to everything on the page,

which is why I believe UnionStation.org is already succeeding at Aesthetic and

Minimalist Design.