Major Features
The report has been prepared to evaluate the website of Queensland Maritime Museum with the URL as https://maritimemuseum.com.au. The museum was founded in the year 1971 and is currently run by a self-funded voluntary association. The museum is located at the banks of the Brisbane River at the southern end of the South Bank Parklands. The museum runs the research and analysis on all the aspects associated with the maritime history of Queensland and Australia along with the maritime matters in general (Knight, 2011).
The evaluation of the website has been done keeping the interactivity and responsiveness of the site as the two primary aspects. There are various methodologies that can be followed during the designing of the website. One such approach is Responsive Web Design (RWD). It is the approach in which the website elements and features are developed to behave as per the user actions so that the response is ad-hoc. Human Computer Interaction (HCI) principles have also been defined in terms of system and user interaction to support the maximum interaction for the best user experience. The evaluation of the site will be done on the basis of the HCI principles of web design and RWD approach.
The website has been designed to provide the users with the maximum information regarding the museum and its services.
The features of the web site can be explained on the basis of the seven menu options that appear at the top of the site. The first is the About Us section in which the details and history of the QLD Maritime Museum is included along with the location and accessibility details. The users can also book school and group visits from this section. Operating hours, admission tickets, and donation information is available in this menu option.
The second menu option is Visit Us. The history and technical details of various collections present in the museum can be accessed from this option. The third menu option is Collections in which the user can acquire information and details on the Events & Exhibitions, Vessels, Dry Dock, Lighthouses, Marine Engines, Nautical Equipment, and Ship Models. There are services that are provided by the museum which can be accessed from the site using the Services menu option. It includes four sub-options under it as Education, Research, Functions, and Weddings (Maritimemuseum, 2018). The museum is currently run by self-funded voluntary association and there are funds needed to maintain the museum and provide the desired set of services. The users can provide their support using the Support Us option. Sponsorship and donation can be made using this option along with Bequests and Wish List. The Contact details of the museum can be acquired from the Contact Us option on the site. The details about the members can be acquired from the Members menu option that includes the sub-options as The Mess Deck, Membership, and Volunteers.
Website Aspects
The evaluation of the website has been done for the large, medium, and small displays in the portrait as well as landscape modes for the mobile devices. The evaluation of the site will be done on the basis of the HCI principles of web design and RWD approach. RWD is the approach in which the website elements and features are developed to behave as per the user actions so that the response is ad-hoc. Human Computer Interaction (HCI) principles have also been defined in terms of system and user interaction to support the maximum interaction for the best user experience.
The first phase of evaluation is done for the large display for the desktop platforms and the resolution for this evaluation has been set at 2500 x 1400. It is the widescreen resolution and the interaction and responsiveness of the site is evaluated. There are a few positive and certain negative aspects that have been detected in this resolution and the results are as included below.
There are seven menu options that are present on the web site as About Us, Visit Us, Collections, Services, Support Us, Contact Us, and Members.
When the user clicks on any of these menu options, the user is notified as the mark at the top of the option shifts to the one that is clicked upon by the user.
It is one of the mechanisms that support the interaction of the site between the system and the user.
There is a map that is included to get the location of the museum and the user is provided with the ability to select the mode of transport as car, bus, train, ferry, and walk. The directions are provided to easily reach to the museum on the basis of the mode that is selected.
There is a Contact Us page included on the site that includes the contact details for the museum. Also, the users can make any of the enquiries regarding the museum from this page by entering their Name, Company, Email, Phone, and Message. The message will be sent to the support desk and the users will be provided with a response on their email address.
There is a consistency in the layout of the site which has been kept simple. At the top of the site, there is a logo of the museum that has been placed followed by the menu section, title section, body section, and footer section. The menu and footer section remains the same across all the pages. The title section and the body section vary on the basis of the option that is selected by the user. This supports the consistency principle that is defined under the HCI principles. The consistency of the site is extremely important so that the maximum user experience can be achieved.
Desktop
There are also a few negative aspects that have been detected in the desktop resolution of the site.
The primary set of issues is with the visual appeal and aesthetics of the site that has some of the major flaws that need to be corrected. For instance, the textual elements and content on the site is not aligned using the justified alignment. This is not as per the HCI principle and may lead to the deterioration of the user experience. The aligned text looks visually appealing and adds to the user experience.
Textual Content
There is also a problem of too many whitespaces that has been observed on a majority of the web pages of the site. The right panel of the site has been kept the same across all the pages that provide the information on the operating hours, admissions tickets, and make a donation. The information on the left panel continues which gives whitespaces on the right section of the site.
These whitespaces may not be appreciated by the user and this may lead to a drop in the user experience.
Another negative aspect that has been witnessed on the site is the poor social media integration. The current era is the era of social media and the users expect the ability to connect with a majority of the social media platforms from the site. However, in this case, there is an option to connect to the Facebook account as the only social media link. There is no option to connect with any of the other social media accounts from the site. It leads to a limited interaction between the user and the system.
There are certain functionalities that the user looks out for on the web site. One such functionality is the search functionality that is usually present at the top of the site. This enhances the user interaction as the users are allowed to search for any specific information from the site using this option. This critical functionality is currently missing from the site which may lead to dissatisfaction among the users.
The second phase of evaluation is done for the medium display for the mobile platforms and the resolution for this evaluation has been set at 414 x 736. It is the hi-resolution in the portrait mode and the interaction and responsiveness of the site is evaluated. There are a few positive and certain negative aspects that have been detected in this resolution and the results are as included below (Shersonmedia, 2016).
Negative Aspects
The functionality of the web site has not been disturbed in this mode as all the menu options have been kept the same.
The color scheme along with the consistency has also been maintained as the logo of the site is present at the top and there is a link to access the menu options. However, there are a few negative aspects that are found in this resolution.
The primary concern is with the navigation and scrolling as there is too much content on the site. The mobile screens are comparatively smaller than the desktop counterparts. The users experience too much scrolling in this resolution. Also, the search functionality is missing which may not allow the make the search for specific areas and information sets. There are certain functionalities that the user looks out for on the web site. One such functionality is the search functionality that is usually present at the top of the site. This enhances the user interaction as the users are allowed to search for any specific information from the site using this option. This critical functionality is currently missing from the site which may lead to dissatisfaction among the users.
The textual elements and content on the site is not aligned using the justified alignment. This is not as per the HCI principle and may lead to the deterioration of the user experience. The aligned text looks visually appealing and adds to the user experience. There is also a problem of too many whitespaces that has been observed on a majority of the web pages of the site.
The third phase of evaluation is done for the medium display for the mobile platforms and the resolution for this evaluation has been set at 736 x 414. It is the hi-resolution in the landscape mode and the interaction and responsiveness of the site is evaluated. There are a few positive and certain negative aspects that have been detected in this resolution and the results are as included below.
The positive and negative aspects in this resolution are similar to the portrait mode and there are no issues with the consistency of the site. However, there is missing search functionality and social media integration that is a cause of concern. Also, the textual elements and content on the site is not aligned using the justified alignment. This is not as per the HCI principle and may lead to the deterioration of the user experience. The aligned text looks visually appealing and adds to the user experience. There is also a problem of too many whitespaces that has been observed on a majority of the web pages of the site. There are also issues with navigation and scrolling as there is too much scrolling on most of the web pages.
Textual Content
The fourth phase of evaluation is done for the medium display for the mobile platforms and the resolution for this evaluation has been set at 360 x 640. It is the low-resolution in the portrait mode and the interaction and responsiveness of the site is evaluated. There are a few positive and certain negative aspects that have been detected in this resolution and the results are as included below.
The positive and negative aspects in this resolution are similar to the portrait mode and there are no issues with the consistency of the site. However, there is missing search functionality and social media integration that is a cause of concern. Also, the textual elements and content on the site is not aligned using the justified alignment. This is not as per the HCI principle and may lead to the deterioration of the user experience. The aligned text looks visually appealing and adds to the user experience. There is also a problem of too many whitespaces that has been observed on a majority of the web pages of the site. There are also issues with navigation and scrolling as there is too much scrolling on most of the web pages.
The fifth phase of evaluation is done for the medium display for the mobile platforms and the resolution for this evaluation has been set at 640 x 360. It is the low-resolution in the landscape mode and the interaction and responsiveness of the site is evaluated. There are a few positive and certain negative aspects that have been detected in this resolution and the results are as included below.
The positive and negative aspects in this resolution are similar to the portrait mode and there are no issues with the consistency of the site. However, there is missing search functionality and social media integration that is a cause of concern. Also, the textual elements and content on the site is not aligned using the justified alignment. This is not as per the HCI principle and may lead to the deterioration of the user experience. The aligned text looks visually appealing and adds to the user experience. There is also a problem of too many whitespaces that has been observed on a majority of the web pages of the site. There are also issues with navigation and scrolling as there is too much scrolling on most of the web pages.
The first review has been done by Tom. He is a friend and is currently working as a Civil Engineer. He accessed the web site on his iPhone Plus and was not impressed with the first look of the site. He found the site too plain and was tired scrolling on the web pages as there was too much content included on the site. He was also looking an option to post some of the content of the site on his Twitter account but was disappointed to see that there was no option to access the account from the site.
Whitespaces
He was interested in the history of the museum and was impressed to read about the museum and the quality of the content that was included.
The second review was done by Martha. She is a colleague and accessed the site on her laptop using Internet Explorer as the web browser. She first read about the details of the site and the museum and could easily access the history and information she was looking for from the About Us section. She then went to the Support Us page and wanted to make a donation by using online modes of payment. She was disappointed to find out that there was no payment gateways integrated on the site. She also found that the layout was too simple on the site.
- There must be search functionality included on the site so that the users can search for specific information using the option.
- The textual elements shall be aligned using justified option to enhance the visual appeal (Beverly, 2016).
- The social media interaction on the site shall be improved by allowing the users to connect to other social media platforms apart from Facebook.
- There must be payment gateways integrated on the site to allow the users to make the donations. This will enhance the funds raised for the museum and will enhance the visual appeal as well.
- There is too much scrolling on the site especially on the portrait mode of the mobile devices which may deteriorate the user experience. The over-loading of the content shall be avoided to enhance the user interaction and engagement (Cavoukian, 2016).
- There are too many whitespaces on the site on almost all of the web pages. These whitespaces shall be removed by adequately placing the content.
The tool that has been used to evaluate the website is Google Chrome Device Simulator. It allows the evaluation of the site by adjusting the screen resolution as per the requirement.
The advantages of the tool include the selection of the resolution to understand the responsiveness of the site in varying resolutions. It eliminates the need to evaluate or test the site by procuring additional tools. For instance, the website in this case was tested in large, medium, and small displays. The additional devices were not procured for the evaluation purpose. This brings down the overall cost associated with testing and evaluation activities.
There are a few drawbacks that are also associated with the site. The testing of the site with other functionalities, such as calling functionality or network interruptions cannot be tested through the device. The exact environment of the device cannot be created through the use of these tools.
There are various tools and sites that can be used to test the RWD pages.
These include Mobile Joomla which can be used to test the mobile version of the web site and the responsiveness of the site across different resolutions. Another tool is mobile phone emulator by COWEMO. Opera Mobile Emulator for Desktop is also one of the tools that may be used.
Conclusion
The website has been evaluated from the RWS and HCI principles. The evaluation is done on the desktop and mobile platforms for large, medium, and small displays. There are positive and negative aspects detected on the site. There are several areas that need to be improved upon in terms of visual appeal, critical functionalities, social media integration, and responsiveness of the site (Webdesignerdepot, 2016). The improvement of these elements and areas will enhance the user interaction and user connectivity for the web site. It will also make sure that the funds raised for the museum are also enhanced with the ability to the users to make donations using the online modes of payment.
References
Beverly, B. (2016). 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.cc.gatech.edu/projects/PageSleuth/references/p309-zimmermann.pdf [Accessed 6 Sep. 2018].
Cavoukian, A. (2016). 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Resources/pbd-user-interfaces_Yahoo.pdf [Accessed 6 Sep. 2018].
Knight, K. (2011). Responsive Web Design: What It Is and How To Use It – Smashing Magazine. [online] Smashing Magazine. Available at: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/guidelines-for-responsive-web-design/ [Accessed 6 Sep. 2018].
Maritimemuseum (2018). Home. [online] Queensland Maritime Museum. Available at: https://maritimemuseum.com.au/ [Accessed 6 Sep. 2018].
Shersonmedia. (2016). [online] Available at: https://www.shersonmedia.com/grant/cv/items/presentations/WebDesignTalkfest.pdf. [Accessed 6 Sep. 2018].
Webdesignerdepot. (2016). The opportunities and challenges of responsive design. [online] Available at: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/11/the-opportunities-and-challenges-of-responsive-design/ [Accessed 6 Sep. 2018].
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