Background

The Untermyer Gardens Conservancy is a 43-acre public garden located in Yonkers, New York, dedicated to the restoration and preservation of these historic gardens.

The Problem

Our team identified several usability issues with the Untermyer Gardens website that made it difficult for visitors to navigate and find essential information — particularly around visiting hours, directions, and event listings.

Our Solution

We focused on making information more accessible and engaging through a simplified content structure, improving the overall user experience for first-time visitors to the website.

Accessibility Testing

We began with a comprehensive heuristic evaluation of the website to assess its compliance with web accessibility standards. Our evaluation revealed several issues:

• Poor contrast ratios affecting readability
• Missing alt text making images inaccessible to screen readers
• Inconsistent navigation patterns across pages

User Interviews

We conducted five in-depth user interviews, observing how participants interacted with the website naturally. Our research revealed that users found the header overwhelming and certain pages too cluttered with information. However, they consistently praised the quality and quantity of images throughout the site.

User Persona

We created Walter's persona to represent our typical user: someone who wants to find essential information about the gardens quickly and efficiently. This persona helped us maintain focus on solving real user needs throughout the design process.

Feature Prioritization

Through careful analysis, our team prioritized the restructuring of the navigation bar to enhance user experience and improve information findability. We also identified the need to increase font sizes across the site for better accessibility and readability.

Information Architecture & Card Sorting

Through card sorting exercises with users, we identified key areas for improving the site's navigation structure:

• Consolidated redundant menu items to reduce cognitive load
• Grouped related content into logical categories
• Created clear hierarchies for primary and secondary navigation
• Simplified the path to key information like visiting hours and directions

User Flow

We developed a comprehensive user flow to ensure our design decisions aligned with both user needs and stakeholder requirements. A key objective was simplifying the tour booking process and making essential visitor information more accessible.

Mid Fidelity Mockup

In our mid-fidelity designs, we focused on:

• Maintaining the original site's aesthetic while improving usability
• Creating clear visual hierarchies to guide users
• Implementing a responsive design that works across devices
• Showcasing the garden's beauty through optimized image placement

The new navigation bar features dropdown menus to help visitors easily parse options and find what they need. We also prominently featured high-quality images to give visitors a clear preview of the gardens.

Testing Plan

We conducted usability testing with 3 participants to evaluate the effectiveness of our redesigned navigation and overall site experience. Key tasks included finding visiting hours, locating the garden map, and accessing event information.

Testing Insights

Pain points:

• Map location was still not immediately obvious to users
• Font sizes needed further adjustment for better readability
• Some navigation items weren't consistently clickable
• Donation button needed more prominence

Positive feedback:

• Users found the site visually appealing and easy to navigate
• Location and hours information was easily accessible
• New navigation structure felt more intuitive
• Image gallery effectively showcased the gardens

Iteration Notes

Based on testing feedback, we enhanced the visibility of the garden map, increased font sizes across the site, fixed navigation consistency issues, redesigned the donation button for better visibility, and improved the events section interaction design.

High Fidelity Prototype

Key Takeaways

• Information architecture has a significant impact on site usability and user satisfaction
• Visual design should support, not overshadow, key user tasks
• Consistent navigation patterns are crucial for user confidence
• Regular user testing is essential for validating design decisions

Next steps: Present findings to stakeholders, conduct on-site research, expand the prototype with additional pages, continue user testing, and develop a content strategy for ongoing site maintenance.