We first sat down with NYC & Company to learn more about their organization and the users they serve. They had three main groups of people coming to their site for information:

Local
New Yorkers

Domestic
Travelers

International
Travelers

Also, based on their site’s traffic, most users were using a mobile device to access NYCgo. Due to this factor, we felt it would be best to take a mobile-first approach to this project.

Month-over-month, the majority of users accessed NYCgo via their mobile devices.

User Interview Insights

Now that we had some initial information, it was time for us to speak directly with users and see if NYCgo does indeed have three unique visitor types or were there commonalities that users shared. We interviewed nine users making sure to have diverse representation, interviewing three locals, three domestic travels, and three international travelers. Some insights started to emerge:

“I need to feel secure when booking and planning events, so I book direct.”

“I love to explore hip new restaurants and cuisines when in New York.”

“I use third party sites to bundle booking things like flights and hotels.”

User Testing

It was also essential for us to see users interacting with NYCgo to get a first-hand sense of any areas of delight or frustration they were experiencing. We performed 2 test scenarios as a benchmark. Firstly, to find tickets to Wicked on a specific date. Broadway tickets are the only vertical sale on NYCgo, so sales directly benefit them. Secondly, to find a Greek restaurant in Hell's Kitchen. 90% of users surveyed said restaurants were the more important leisure activity to them.

Average Time on Task

Mobile
VS.
Desktop

On average, users spent twice as long to complete tasks on mobile. We knew this was an issue as most mobile users are on the go and don't have the extra time to spend searching a site. Though, users overall experienced a great deal of frustration across all devices:

Competitive Analysis

We looked at ten other US and World city sites that offered like information to NYCgo. Looking at their navigational structure would give us an idea of any design patterns that NYCgo was missing out on:

For NYC & Company, our team would have to take a different approach to analyze the data from our user interviews. Personas would not be appropriate as NYC & Company is very concerned with being as diverse as possible since they have such a large user base to serve. Our team decided it was best to use behavioral archetypes instead.

Archetypes

We first affinity mapped to find common themes between users. From those insights, we were able to plot key areas on a behavioral matrix to help us better understand our varied user groups. Two archetypes began to emerge:

The Detailed Adventurer

• A majority of users tend to plan out their trips
• They use multiple websites to compare services, but the majority book direct
• They purchase tickets in advance for events and attractions for fear of missing out
• Typically enjoy more mainstream attractions
  

The Spontaneous Explorer

• Tends to do some initial planning for the broad strokes of what they want to do on their trips
• More likely to book hotels on 3rd party sites, generally at the time of booking any flights
• Tries not to lock themselves into a plan
• Will often choose destinations that are off the beaten path
  

With these behavioral archetypes in mind, it was now time to begin analyzing the information architecture of the NYCgo. Keeping in mind what our archetypes were looking to achieve on the site would allow us to focus our efforts.

Heuristic Evaluation

We evaluated NYCgo using the Abby Heuristics Method that looks at ten key areas; Delightful, Valuable, Findable, Credible, Learnable, Controllable, Communicable, Accessible, Useful, Clear, and Finable. By assessing these areas, we would not only get a sense of any IA, hierarchy, or UI issues, but we could potentially find other areas of concern.​

We found that overall, NYCgo had Major to Medium issues in 7 out of 10 categories.

Valuable Insights:

• The navigation, in general, was too narrow and deep, making it easy for the user to get lost within the website.
• Some of the navigation labels were vague, leading to confusion on what information users would find when clicked.
• The site was not consistent across devices, often removing elements useful for mobile.
• We documented technical issues that would need to be addressed by their software engineering team.
• Overall, the site had an abundance of delight and intrigue thanks in part to NYCgo's consistent branding.

Open Card Sorting

We first performed an open card sort using the existing navigation of NYCgo’s site. What was found was that users typically placed items into four categories, very similar to the current primary navigation of the website.

Location

Attractions

Hotels

Basic Info

From our previous user testing and heuristics evaluation, we knew that this was not necessarily the best strategy for the site. Users would benefit from some areas of interest being highlighted, like restaurants and Broadway information, in the primary navigation, and others being deemphasized, like hotel information.

As we were tasked by NYC & Company to rework their information architecture, we would be focusing on two main areas, site navigation & hierarchy of information on the page. We would start with the navigational structure as it is the backbone of a website. To have a well-rounded information architecture, we would have to consider ontology, taxonomy, and choreography.

Global Navigation

From our open card sort, we saw that users had mostly placed items in a similar structure to what NYCgo currently uses. But, from user interviews and competitive analysis, we also noticed that what is relevant to users is being buried deep in the site's navigation. We also noted that some labels in the navigation were unclear or confusing to users. We felt that it would be best to increase the breadth of the primary navigation while decreasing the depth of layers users needed to sift through.

The City

Informed By: User Interviews and Open Card Sort

Part of NYCgo’s current navigation. In testing, users identified “The City” as having to do with information about NYC, its neighborhoods, services, and history.

Things To Do

Informed By: Competitive Analysis, Open Card Sort, Heuristics

7/10 competitors had a “Things To Do” section, which was a strong indication of a design pattern for this industry. Most city information websites had attractions, museums, and other events under this label. “Things To Do” largely replaces “Explore” in their current navigation as users found this label unclear.

Broadway

Informed By: Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Business Goals

During the competitive analysis, cities' featured unique attractions in their primary navigation. Most users also noted that catching a show in NYC was a high priority for them. Broadway tickets, the only vertical sale on NYCgo, have been in decline since "Broadway" removed from the navigation post the 2016 update.

Eat and Drink

Informed By: Competitive Analysis, User Interviews

90% of users surveyed stated that restuarants were a primary concern while in NYC. On competitors' websites, dining was also highly visible in their top-level navigation.

Stay and Plan

Informed By: User Interviews, Open Card Sort, Business Goals

Generally, our archetypes either booked hotels directly or bundled their flight and hotel on a 3rd party site. It is important to NYCgo's mission to help promote staying in less highlighted areas of the city. Due to these factors, we decided to keep hotels on the primary navigation but combine it with other information people visiting NYC might need.

Closed Card Sorting

Now that we had a starting point for our primary navigation based on our research, it was time to check back in with users. We would perform a closed card sort to test the onology of our primary navigation, as well as the taxonomy of its relationship to secondary navigation labels.

Broadway/ Events

Users felt unsure where to place Off-Broadway and cultural events. Expanding "Broadway" to "Broadway and Events" would help encompass more topics.

New and Trending

Users were very split on where to place this label. Most users felt each category could feature a New and Trending section.

Co-Existing Pattern

For users, there was a lot of cross-over between where labels could live. The site should follow more of a co-existing hierarchy pattern to fit different mental models.

With user insights from the closed card sort, the time had come for us to formalize a new navigational flow for NYCgo. All of our previous data would inform and validate our new site map.

New Site-Map

The City

Eat & Drink

Broadway & Events

Things To Do

Stay & Plan

1. Users felt "New & Trending" could exist in various places as it could refer to new events, spaces, or attractions.
2. 9/13 users placed "Nightlife" under "The City" as they felt the nightlife culture was synonymous with the history of NYC. Further research is needed to clarify the onology as this refers to nightlife events.
3. Originally existed on a quaternary navigation level. Users felt this could live under "The City" or "Things To Do."
4. Users felt this could exist under "The City" or "Stay & Plan."

1. Users felt "New & Trending" could exist in various places as it could refer to new events, spaces, or attractions.
2. Originally existed on a secondary navigation level. 90% of users listed restaurants as the most relevant activity they look for in NYC.
3. Originally existed on a quaternary navigation level. Users felt this could live under "The City" or "Things To Do."

1. Originally existed on a secondary navigation level. Based on research, as Broadway is a unique attraction to NYC, it should exist in the primary navigation.
2. Users felt "New & Trending" could exist in various places as it could refer to new events, spaces, or attractions.
3. Originally existed on a quaternary navigation level. Users could only access this after first selecting Broadway and scrolling down the page.
4. Originally only existed in the site-map at the footer. During card-sorting, most users expressed enthusiasm for this topic.

1. From a competitive analysis, we found having "Things To Do" as a primary navigation link was a design pattern for tourism/city information sites. Replaces a primary navigation link titled "Explore," a section that contained the majority of information for the site.
2. Originally existed on a quaternary navigation level. Users felt this could live under "The City" or "Things To Do."

1. Initially, two separate primary navigational elements, "Stay" and "Navigate." Combined to emphasize topics of more relevance to users.
2. Originally named "The Seasons," users were perplexed as to what information is under this topic. Renamed to "Seasonal Guides" to help clarify.
3. Originally named "Personalize Your Trip." Research showed users thought this section would contain information about setting up a personal itinerary for their trip. But these are surprised guides for families, first-time visitors, and LGBTQ+ visitors to NYC.
4. Users felt this could exist under "The City" or "Stay & Plan."

The navigation now expanded for a broader primary level and less deep secondary and tertiary levels. Also, we eliminated all quaternary navigation levels. We hoped that users would now be able to find the information they needed in fewer clicks. We would test our new navigation after we also made a few changes to the information hierarchy.

Flow & Function

The last important part of any information architecture redesign is focusing on the choreography, or flow, of information to the user. As a redesign was not really within the scope of this project, we decided to focus on meaningful areas of improvement to the hierarchy of information and functions of the website, as informed by our research. We would again focus on our two tasks of finding a restaurant and booking a Broadway show.

Secondary Navigation

An additional navigation method would help users switch between secondary navigation elements within their parent. As informed by user testing and heuristics, desktop users can switch between secondary navigation elements with ease, but this is not the case on mobile. Users have to start each new navigational request, in essence, from "home."

Search Hierarchy

Previously the ability to initiate a search of Broadway shows or restaurants was buried on the bottom of both pages. We moved this ability to the top of the page. User research revealed this was the function within these pages that were the most important to users. Also, the restaurant search bar, not previously available on mobile, had aided desktop users in quickly finding what they needed.

Left: Current NYCgo Site.     Right: New Proposed Layout

Visual Impact

The initial reaction to the Broadway and restaurant pages on NYCgo by users was of being overwhelmed with information. The "featured" section, which is the first to greet users on these pages, originally contained 48 items broken up into 8 sets of 6. We limited this to just 2-3 items and enlarged their photos to give them importance and clarity on the page. Further down the page, we listed the remainder of these items under a new "Spotlight" section.

Filter and Sorting

Within the Broadway section of NYCgo, users had difficulty accessing the filtering tools necessary for them to narrow down their show selection. We made these filtering tools more promonant on the page. Additionally, no sorting feature existed when selecting tickets. Lack of this feature led to adverse user reactions as users had to sift through a jumble of available tickets.

User Testing

Once again, it was time to check in with our users. This time though to see if our changes imformed by our research and insights had improved the users experience with NYCgo. We would test this by measuring the amount of clicks it takes users to now complete our two tasks, finding a Greek restaurant in Hell's Kitchen and finding tickets for Wicked on a specific date.

13

10

Broadway
Task

Restaurant
Task

7

5

Proposed
Site

Current
Site

Averaging the amount of clicks users had to take to complete each task on mobile, we were able to reduce clicks in half. Users also reported having a better overall experience.

Through we were at the end of our consultancy with NYCgo was over, it doesn’t mean the work stops. Further exploration is needed to ensure their continuing success:

• Continue usability testing & refinement on the new navigation structure.
• Create a desktop prototype to see how our proposed changes work in a larger medium.
• Continue to reduce the number of clicks needed to access the information. We felt with the additional changes listed below; clicks could be further reduced and improve users' interactions with NYCgo.

For Restaurants Specifically

Open Table's location and search feature.

• Add more intuitive location and search features similar to Open Table & Yelp. Though we were able to improve the flow of their current search process, design patterns exist that NYCgo should use.
• Separate content from articles. During testing, users typically thought that "Restaurants" would be solely about searching and "New & Trending" more articles related to places to dine.
• Add ratings and reviews as most users noted they expected to see this.

For Broadway Tickets Specifically

User's expected to see a seating chart to know where they would be sitting.

• Add seating chart information. During testing, users generally wanted to know where the seats they were purchasing are located but had no way of knowing.
• Allow users to search by a range of dates, not just a single date. Most users said they were able to accomplish this on other like sites.
• Separate content from articles. During testing, users typically thought that "Broadway" would be solely about searching and "New & Trending" more articles related to places to dine.

Reflections

It was a rewarding experience to work with a client on the level of NYC & Company. Their site plays a vital role in the fabric of New York City. As someone who has called this concrete jungle home for over ten years, this project brought an intense level of pride in getting to leave my mark on this impressive city.

I also had the pleasure of working with some awe-inspiring and brilliant people on this project. When a team works in unison and can complement each other's backgrounds and skillsets, it really comes through in the work.