This was Appnovation first time partnering with NYC's to create something amazing together.
Post-pandemic was an opportunity for NYC Tourism to attract locals and new travellers to visit New York City.
56 million
domestic and international visitors visited New York City in 2022.
From user insights and research findings we asked
How might we create an intuitive digital experience that helps users with their travel plans
Let's scroll down to see how we achieved this.
The Story
Imagine you are…
An avid traveller, visiting relatives and friends, or just a local looking to see what's the latest fun events that are open in New York City. These are what millions of users using NYC Tourism's website are looking to do, plan, and enjoy.
However, they run into this problem…
Unclear Page Structures = Lost Users!
Users found themselves lost in what seems to be endless amounts of pages. Some pages felt and looked similar from other pages, leading to confusion amongst users even further.
35%
of users drop off the website before clicking on additional pages.
65%
of users upgrade to the required TurboTax product when prompted once, with a completion rate between 64-83% after the upsell. However...
The team and I decided the best approach to this issue is to…
Redesign NYC Tourism’s Page Informational Architecture
The new TurboTax’s Complexity-based Line Up system is hard to understand. Around 65% of our users chose the wrong product for their tax situations, resulting in multiple upsells down the process.
65%
of users upgrade to the required TurboTax product when prompted once, with a completion rate between 64-83% after the upsell. However...
65%
of users upgrade to the required TurboTax product when prompted once, with a completion rate between 64-83% after the upsell. However...
The Process
The Research
What do we know? What can we improve on?
The team and I conducted UX heuristics audit on the site to get an in-depth understanding of what the core problem may be for users and businesses alike. We use these research findings to come up with a hypothesis which we will use to test. Which will be used as the driving factors for the final designs.
High Level Design Solutions:
Key Findings
Design Suggestions
We found that NYCTourism.com has many errors with its information architecture. Further attention and improvements is necessary for better information structure.
Improving Information Architecture
of users upgrade to the required TurboTax product when prompted once, with a completion rate between 64-83% after the upsell. However...
NYCTourism.com is performing averagely in comparison to the other DMOs when it comes to content and design.
65%
of users upgrade to the required TurboTax product when prompted once, with a completion rate between 64-83% after the upsell. However...
There’s a lack of a fully functioning search bar, menus, and general site navigation is not in accordance with the expectations of the user’s mental model.
65%
of users upgrade to the required TurboTax product when prompted once, with a completion rate between 64-83% after the upsell. However...
Let’s learn from competitors.
How they run the business?
During this heuristic audit stage, I also conducted a comprehensive UX heuristic audit from 4 other tourism websites and specifically researching their DMO pages.
Indirect Competitors I’ve analyzed:
Los Angeles
Nashville
Dubai
Holland
For each indirect competitor, the team and I created charts looking at the 4 features previously mentioned above (Filtering & Sorting, Directories, Itinerary Builder, Inspirational Content) to calculate an error percentage using the severity rating formula.
The Hypothesis
Using our research insights,
we came up with a hypothesis
From our heuristic audit and in-direct competitive market analysis, the team and I hypothesize the following:
The current Information Architecture of NYC Tourism makes it unclear for users during their site navigation journey.
We believe this is why users stick to their usual paths without exploring new pages where they could discover more interesting, useful information and features.
Personas and Usability Testing
These are the users we "assume" are using NYC Tourism's website
Why assumption based personas?
We want to compare the assumptions based personas with the researched based ones after synthesizing our moderated interview findings.
Next Steps: Comparing what is good
From the comparison, we’ll see where NYC Tourism has been in terms of aligning with their user’s needs and behaviours.
Next Steps: Comparing what is bad
We’ll also see which assumptions were proven to be false, and gain insights into what needs to be focused on and addressed for future design implementations.
Using the hypothesis to frame scenarios for the moderated usability test
Using the hypothesis that was concluded from the initial UX Heuristic report, I conducted and led the 25 moderated usability interviews at 1 hour long each. 3 hypothesis were used to informed these moderated tests, but for the purpose of this case study, I will focus on the third hypothesis which was:
— Our third user hypothesis
In Summary:
25 hours of user interviews.
25 unique users with different goals and needs.
5 user groups.
What we found with the
moderated usability tests
Conducting the usability tests proved to be great insight because some of our findings were interesting and took me in a direction that I had not anticipated. From all the data and insights we gathered during the 25 hour usability tests process, my team and I grouped similar themes and synthesized all our findings into an affinity map.
So, what insights did we gain with our moderated usability test?
The Solution
Based on our real user data and challenging our assumptions, we decided to create a new Informational Architecture
After confirming our initial hypothesis using real user data insights and also creating 3 researched based personas, the team and I decided to focus on redesigning NYC Tourism Informational Architecture.
Aligning insights from users and stakeholders and using design principles to focus on key solutions
The goal of the Informational Architecture's redesign is to:
Properly breadcrumbing to give users ability to move between different types of content without getting lost
Better signposting and labelling/copy to clearly indicate new content and useful features
Reducing the breadth of navigation menu and sitemap by merging similar categories helping users understand content organization
Showcasing the new NYC Tourism Informational Architecture Menu
After synthesizing the card sort and tree test findings, and looking into 13 other DMOs’ menus for ideation, this the new refined and simplified menu we’ve created.
The Design
Here are the final designs, fully shipped and with updated IA implementations
Working closely with the development and engineering team, the team and I created wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups of the final iteration UI web and mobile designs.
Before
After
Fully Responsive
Mobile Design
