Amgueddfa Cymru: an extensive website discovery process for a national museum
Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales has seven museums across Wales, including National Museum Cardiff, St Fagans National History Museum and the National Slate Museum.
In 2022, following a competitive tender process, we were appointed to assist in a wide-ranging Discovery Phase for the redevelopment of the Amgueddfa Cymru website.
Project summary
Our research and analysis looked at how their bilingual website could best serve the needs of the organisation and their users. The focus was on key audience groups, including visit planners and those accessing online content, collections, and experiences.
The project took place in the context of multiple workstreams including a rebrand (with accompanying website restyling), a new CRM and ticketing system, and the development of an overarching digital strategy. On top of this, external factors meant that the turnaround time was very tight.
Within a relatively short period of time, we used the following methods to build up as comprehensive a view of the website’s performance as possible.
1. Moderated usability tests
We conducted moderated usability tests with participants who were recruited through a pop-up survey on the Amgueddfa Cymru website.
Tests were carried out via Zoom and focused on planning a visit to one of the museums and finding certain online resources.
2. Surveys
We ran three sets of surveys on both the English and Welsh language websites:
User Identity and Intent
Content Engagement
Exit surveys to gauge usability and visit satisfaction
We were able to fire these specific surveys under specific conditions. For example, no user should be served more than one survey if they’ve already dismissed it, surveys would only load after a five-second delay, and for some (like content engagement) only on certain pages on the site.
3. Treejack navigation tests
We recruited test participants to this navigation test via a web pop up fired on the AC-MW website.
A pietree diagram from Treejack, a tool for testing information architecture and navigational labels.
4. Search engine optimisation and keyword research
We used a selection of industry-standard tools to identify opportunities to improve Search Engine Optimisation through both technical development as well as providing a list of more in-depth keyword topics for potential future content development.
5. Content and usability audit
We created a content audit which gave an at-a-glance view of areas of stronger and weaker performance relative to their position in the content hierarchy. We did this on the English, Welsh and shop websites. We also noted any pages which demonstrated clear usability issues, based on Jakob Nielsen’s usability heuristics.
6. Workshops
We ran four workshops over the course of this project: i) website aims and aesthetics, ii) content planning and ideation, iii) commercial platforms, and iv) accessibility review.
Results
We delivered our reports and recommendations to the Amgueddfa Cymru team (on time) and later checked back in to see how they were getting on. We were really happy with what we heard…
“It went above and beyond what we were expecting. A lot of the reports we get are very vague, no one engages with them and the outcome isn’t that different, as if we hadn’t done anything.
But this one was really excellent in how practical it was. We’ve implemented a lot of the quick fixes already, and we’re getting buy-in to allow us to deliver the wider work.
It’s possibly the report with the shortest timeline but the biggest impact I’ve ever been across. Incredibly useful.”