{"id":2010,"date":"2019-03-11T12:22:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T19:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/?p=2010"},"modified":"2019-03-11T12:23:58","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T19:23:58","slug":"skihood-com-user-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/skihood-com-user-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Skihood.com User Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This is my third post in a series on an unsolicited redesign of <a href=\"https:\/\/skihood.com\/\">Mt. Hood Meadows&#8217; website<\/a>. If you want to start from the beginning, see my <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/skihood-com-heuristics\/\" target=\"_blank\">first post on heuristics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark>In this post, I&#8217;ll reveal the results from a user survey, as well as a card sort directed towards improving the site navigation.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">User Survey Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to the niche group of users who visit Mt. Hood Meadows, I only got 16 respondents to my survey. Although I don&#8217;t believe this is statistically enough, for the purposes of this exercise, I will use their comments to direct my redesign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Some demographic info<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>All but one user said they visit the ski resort in the winter. Not surprising.<\/li><li>Those who visit the resort more often overwhelmingly visit the site on their mobile devices. (10 out of 16)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why do people physically visit <g class=\"gr_ gr_26 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation multiReplace\" id=\"26\" data-gr-id=\"26\">Mt.<\/g> Hood Meadows ski resort?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WhyDoPeopleVisitMeadowsNoHeading1_5-1.png\" rel=\"lightbox[2010]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"327\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WhyDoPeopleVisitMeadowsNoHeading1_5-1-800x327.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2030\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WhyDoPeopleVisitMeadowsNoHeading1_5-1-800x327.png 800w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WhyDoPeopleVisitMeadowsNoHeading1_5-1-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WhyDoPeopleVisitMeadowsNoHeading1_5-1-768x314.png 768w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WhyDoPeopleVisitMeadowsNoHeading1_5-1-700x286.png 700w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WhyDoPeopleVisitMeadowsNoHeading1_5-1-520x213.png 520w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WhyDoPeopleVisitMeadowsNoHeading1_5-1-360x147.png 360w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WhyDoPeopleVisitMeadowsNoHeading1_5-1-250x102.png 250w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/WhyDoPeopleVisitMeadowsNoHeading1_5-1-100x41.png 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Top reasons people visit skihood.com<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom.png\" rel=\"lightbox[2010]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"520\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom-800x520.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2033\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom-800x520.png 800w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom-300x195.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom-768x499.png 768w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom-700x455.png 700w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom-520x338.png 520w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom-360x234.png 360w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom-250x162.png 250w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom-100x65.png 100w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonPeopleVisitskihoodcom.png 971w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>To view current weather conditions (13\/16 people)<br>Recent snow accumulation (10\/16)<br>View Webcams (7\/16)<br>See ticket prices (7\/16)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Combining visits to the site v. visits to the resort<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite.png\" rel=\"lightbox[2010]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"498\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite-800x498.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2035\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite-800x498.png 800w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite-300x187.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite-768x478.png 768w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite-700x435.png 700w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite-520x323.png 520w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite-360x224.png 360w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite-500x310.png 500w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite-250x156.png 250w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite-100x62.png 100w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/ReasonVisitResortvWebsite.png 1770w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>How often do people visit the resort (<g class=\"gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace\" id=\"4\" data-gr-id=\"4\">x axis<\/g>) and the website (<g class=\"gr_ gr_5 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace\" id=\"5\" data-gr-id=\"5\">y axis<\/g><g class=\"gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation multiReplace\" id=\"6\" data-gr-id=\"6\">).<\/g> The numbers indicate the count of survey takers who fall into the combined category.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When combining this chart with why people visit the website, those who visit the resort most often check the site often primarily for weather, snow accumulation, and the mountain cameras. As we trail more towards the less frequent visitors, more of the other reasons come in &#8211; ticket price check, purchasing of tickets (presumably because they are not season pass holders), trailmaps. <mark>Regardless of which category a visitor falls in, all people care about weather conditions.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Personas <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Will<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Will_Persona-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2052\" width=\"231\" height=\"369\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Will_Persona-1.png 324w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Will_Persona-1-188x300.png 188w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Will_Persona-1-250x399.png 250w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Will_Persona-1-100x160.png 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 231px) 100vw, 231px\" \/><figcaption>Will taking the lift up from the Mt. Hood Meadows base area<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>He is a skier who visits Mt. Hood meadows at least once a week. He has a seasons pass and likes to check the website to see what the weather, snow accumulation, and what slopes look like via the webcams. He likes to check how many runs he made via the track my turns feature. Most of time he will check the day before he goes, or on the way there on his mobile phone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes he will take friends so he also likes to check the ticket prices, or see if there\u2019s a buddy-pass deal. He\u2019s been to a couple holiday events with friends, so he also likes to see what special events are happening, but that is something he only does once or twice a season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Jenny<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jenny_Persona-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2055\" width=\"233\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jenny_Persona-1.png 324w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jenny_Persona-1-213x300.png 213w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jenny_Persona-1-250x352.png 250w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Jenny_Persona-1-100x141.png 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><figcaption>Jenny taking a break from shredding down the slopes.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>She only visits Mt. Hood Meadows one or two times a winter season. She does not have a season pass so will usually buy day passes online. She skis, but also likes to lounge in the lodge, bringing her own food to eat. She visits the website to check the hours of operations of the lodge and skiing, check the resort trailmaps, view ticket prices, and see if there are any special events going on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She is annoyed by not being able to see snowfall past 48 hours. Sometimes the webcams are foggy or covered in ice, limiting her visitibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s frustrating about skihood.com?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cIt can be difficult to navigate to their special ticket packages.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cUm, everything! It\u2019s hard to navigate, and it not <g class=\"gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling multiReplace\" id=\"6\" data-gr-id=\"6\">user friendly<\/g>\u201d <\/p><p><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201c[There are no] recent snowfall and conditions beyond 48 hrs\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Signing up for racing and finding the racer waivers.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What do you like about skihood.com?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;I can find the conditions report immediately from the home page.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Site always seemed very complete to me and I remember that it seemed quite personal with daily manager comments. It always seemed like the people running the place (and site) were also just skiers\/boarders that want to have fun.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Card Sort Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The purpose of this card sort was to see how people categorize and group typical ski resort website content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also want to <mark>pay<em> specific attention<\/em> to content that the survey showed to be the most important reason users visit the site: Weather conditions, snow accumulation, webcams, and ticket information.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I used <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"optimalworkshop.com (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/optimalworkshop.com\" target=\"_blank\">optimalworkshop.com<\/a>&#8216;s card sort test. Ten people filled it out, categorizing the thirty sections under &#8220;The Mountain&#8221;, &#8220;Plan your stay&#8221;, &#8220;Rentals and Lessons&#8221;, and &#8220;Tickets&#8221;. I also allowed people to create their own categories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Best-Merge-Dendogram-1.png\" rel=\"lightbox[2010]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"508\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Best-Merge-Dendogram-1-800x508.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2047\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Best-Merge-Dendogram-1-800x508.png 800w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Best-Merge-Dendogram-1-300x190.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Best-Merge-Dendogram-1-768x488.png 768w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Best-Merge-Dendogram-1-700x444.png 700w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Best-Merge-Dendogram-1-520x330.png 520w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Best-Merge-Dendogram-1-360x229.png 360w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Best-Merge-Dendogram-1-250x159.png 250w, https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/wordpress3_0_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Best-Merge-Dendogram-1-100x63.png 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Best merge method Dendrogram of thirty ski resort website content pages\/sections. Three sections that were not on the card sort, but were on the survey are shown at the bottom in pink text. Click on image to view clearer version.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As I noted in the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"competitor analysis post (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/skihood-com-competitor-sites\/\" target=\"_blank\">competitor analysis post<\/a>, the resorts with <em>four top navigation menus with sub-headings under each<\/em> were the easiest to navigate. This dendrogram gives me a good divide between those four categories I named above. It also shows those sections that didn&#8217;t really fit any of the four categories: Track your turns, Snowshoeing tours, Careers, Shopping Cart, Find facebook page, and Photo\/Video gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Resulting Information Architecture<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To come in the next post!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sneek-peek:<\/strong> the improved navigation will contain four top menus, with sub-menus for the content. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is my third post in a series on an unsolicited redesign of Mt. Hood Meadows&#8217; website. If you want to start from the beginning, see my first post on heuristics. In this post, I&#8217;ll reveal the results from a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[151,293,297,265,295,296],"class_list":["post-2010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","tag-mt-hood","tag-redesign","tag-user-survey","tag-ux","tag-ux-research","tag-website-redesign","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2010"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2061,"href":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions\/2061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ildikototh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}