Project Overview
Inspired Minds Arts Center
Located in Buda, Texas, the Inspired Minds Art Center is a locally rooted, creative hub that celebrates the power of the arts. It connects local artists with the wider community through classes, live theatre, art gallery exhibitions, festivals, & public events.
Client Objective
The goal of this Usability Study was to identify challenges users may encounter while navigating the Inspired Minds Arts Center website and to uncover opportunities to enhance overall usability as they browse the platform.
Navigation
Information
Can visitors can easily find information about classes & events.
Experience
How the overall experience could be improved to attract more customers.
Glimpse of the Solution
A key improvement was simplifying the landing page to reduce cognitive load by removing visual clutter & resolving issues like the clashing logos.
Our Process
The 4 stages
Pre - Testing
Research Framework
Pre - Testing
User Testing
Post - Testing
To ensure that our usability study reflected the needs and behaviors of the Inspired Minds Arts Center’s target audience, we conducted participant recruitment through the Private Panels platform with a pre - test screener.
Screening Criteria
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Yesterday
01
Participant Recruitment
The final study group included 8 adults between the ages of 18 - 50, representing a broad range of potential Inspired Minds Arts Center users, from young adults seeking creative outlets to older adults engaged in community arts experiences.
User insights survey
Additionally, we also conducted a survey to understand how participants typically discover events. The majority reported using social media as their primary source, search engine and word of mouth being the secondary source, as illustrated in the chart.
02
Search Engine
2023
Home
Feed
Bookmarks
Settings
Profile
03
Sitemap Creation
Before testing, our team created a sitemap of the Inspired Minds Arts Center website to understand the existing information architecture and identify opportunities for restructuring content, page hierarchy and navigation flow.
Methodology
Remote Moderated User Testing
We conducted a task based behavioral analysis where participants interacted with the Inspired Minds Art Center website in real time while thinking aloud.
Findings
Analysis of the Data
Following the 8 remote moderated usability tests, we analyzed session recordings and identified recurring user pain points & patterns, we distilled our findings into 4 core usability issues.
Users struggled to locate information efficiently due to overwhelming navigation paths & inconsistent structure.
Dense visual clutter on key pages caused readability issues & made it difficult for users to focus on the information across the pages.
Participants spent excessive time navigating drop-down menus in search of relevant information.
Inconsistent categorization & outdated events hindered quick scanning caused confusion & reduced trust in the content.
Solution
01 Reduce visual clutter & improve clarity, move non-essential elements currently in the header to the footer.
Problem: Overwhelmed with the amount of information presented on the landing page.
Our recommendation: Simplify the landing page by reducing the visual clutter & reorganizing key interface components in the header & footer.
02 Remove duplicate items from drop-down menus & reorganize the navigation structure for a more intuitive experience.
Problem: The site’s repetitive content & numerous navigation paths.
Our recommendation: Clean up the navigation menu by consolidating & removing duplicate options. To support this, we created a revised information architecture & proposed a new sitemap.
03 Increase font weight for key text elements & adjust the grayshades used on event cards to more visually accessible tones.
Problem: Difficulty to read & skim text, indicating issues with overall legibility.
Our recommendation: The issue of legibility can be fixed by increasing the contrast between the text & the background, especially for key information such as event titles, dates, & headings.
Conclusion
My Takeaways
This experience strengthened my ability to translate research insights into clear, actionable design recommendations, an essential skill for effective product design.
User Testing
This project reinforced the value of usability testing as a tool for uncovering issues that are
not always apparent during design.
Design Perspective
This study deepened my understanding of information architecture, visual hierarchy, and accessibility
Improving Usability
It is not only about adding features, but often about simplifying interfaces, reducing cognitive load, and making content easier to scan.
Presenting to our Client
We were excited to see that the findings resonated with the Inspired Minds team & were viewed as clear, actionable insights.
Design Studio incubated at Pratt Institute
Center for Digital Experiences
We also recommended founders, Sinead & Susan partner with the Dx Center in the following semester for a full website redesign to implement our recommendations in practice.
Impact & Outcomes
User Retention
Improvements were made to support stronger user retention & repeat engagement.
Customer Satisfaction
Strengthened customers' connection to the Inspired Minds Arts community.
Business value
Supported both user needs & the organization’s long-term sustainability.
