EHS WEBSITEStarting over

.When you open the EHS web page….

You get the Home Page:

If you click on Articles…

You get the home page with a drop-down menu:

If you click on Preservation…

You get a content page with in-text links:

If you click on Events/Tours…

You get the home page with another dropdown menu :

If you click on Information…

Nothing happens:

If you click on Contact Us…

You get a form:

What we saw• There appear to be links to six main pages in the

navigation bar: Home, Articles, Preservation, Information, Events and Tours, and Contact Us.

• There is currently only one link to a content page (Preservation), one link to a form (Contact Us), two drop-down menus, and four home pages.

• We believe that it is your intent for the home page to act as an information page, and that the links in the “drop-down” list beneath the Information “tab” are meant to guide users to the site’s most important information.

What we did

• Conducted an in-depth inquiry into the site’s contents• Compared the site to similar existing sites• Conducted usability tests with three users (Mike,

Kevin, and Marianne)• Organized existing content without losing information• Chose a template• Created a navigation menu with working links to 5

main pages, 4 secondary pages and continued links within the navigation system to all of the current content except miscellaneous photographs

Usability Testing

• User #1– Mike, an Edgewater resident, interested in seeing

the museum and perhaps taking a walking tour• Began by looking for hours and map for the museum,

He was never quite sure that he had found the actual museum, and could not find admission prices, so he gave up.

Usability Testing• User #2 – Kevin, a local history teacher looking for museum

information, as well as the EHS purpose, location, hours of operation and possibly something that might say school programs or group tours so he can take his students on a field trip • Approached the site with a little more enthusiasm

than Mike, but became tired of looking and not finding. Kevin gave up too. • “Teachers are lazy, they like to be led.”

Usability Testing• User #3 – Marianne, an Edgewater resident and history buff

interested in learning more about the history of the area, conducted a card sort usability test.• began with Karen’s extensive content inventory, but realizing

that the names on links and page labels are misleading and confusing, she created her own list of categories as main pages and renamed several pages so that she could clearly identify the information that she was manipulating.

• borrowed information found on Chicago's history site and created a new category with information for historians and students.

• Once the labels and pages were named accordingly, she came up with a revised site map.

What we did

One more Suggestion . . .

Add a blog with pictures and updates from the conception as an NFP up to now. (this keeps the present separate from, but still linked to, the past. Link it to the About Us (home) page.