International Museum of Surgical Science

An E-Commerce Redesign for the Macabre

 The Brief

  • design a medium-fidelity, clickable prototype around a desktop online shopping experience

  • meet the goals of the business/brand

  • meet the goals of the user

  • follow IA heuristic best practices

The International Museum of Surgical Science (IMSS) is an extensive public gallery committed to the history of surgery and contains a permanent collection of art and artifacts from the history of Medicine.

IMSS is the only museum of its kind in North America… and they only sell totally off-the-wall products in their gift shop.

kneecap Plush

Goals

  • Translate the appreciation and education of the museum into a digital experience

  • redesign the website so the mission and brand connect users with the unique collection of art and artifacts

  • bridge the gap between the sterile medical exhibits they showcase and the light-hearted products they sell

  • Ease the user’s shopping experience

Colon Plush

Research

Surveys:

  • ages 24–60

  • online

  • one on general museum experiences

  • one specifically about the IMSS

Interviews:

  • ages 24–60

  • in person

  • via Zoom

  • over email

affinity mapped for synthesizing and insights

 

General Insights

  • People purchase from the physical gift shop because it’s convenient, spontaneous, and directly correlates with their experience of going through the museum.

  • People tend to purchase small items that are cheaper and easy to carry home at a physical museum gift shop.

  • Hardly anyone is aware items in the gift shop are online, therefore they don’t extend their museum experience once home.

IMSS Insights

  • People purchase small items from the physical gift shop because they are affordable and unique, reminding people of the medical exhibitions in a light-hearted way.

  • People aren’t aware that items in the gift shop are available online, therefore they don’t extend their museum experience once they get home.

  • Once aware, people said they would buy items from the online gift shop because they have amusing products that give the sterile field of medicine a light touch.​

Developing

User Observation / Usability Testing

  • watched a user explore the current IMSS website

  • tracked them purchasing an item from the gift shop

  • user talked me through their process

  • deduced the ease (or lack thereof) of this process

 

Visuals & Clickability

  • homepage is cold

  • no easily accessible unique exhibits OR purchase items

  • text-heavy

  • Museum Store tab has redundancy

  • Museum Store page is titled differently than in navigation

  • IMSS logo in header doesn’t link back to homepage

  • No consistent navigation bar across the top of these pages

  • laborious

Sitemap

Original site architectural observations:

  • overloaded: depth and breadth is overwhelming

  • too many tabs in the navigation

  • unclear navigation

  • ambiguous titles

Solution

Re-organize and simplify the IMSS website so:

  1. the unique exhibits are accessible and stand out

  2. make purchasing a quirky medical-themed gift personable and easy


Proposed Sitemap

Architectural changes (only officially updating the :

  • condensed navigation

  • combined similar topics

  • more accessible exhibitions

  • more accessible shopping

    • reorganized shopping categories

  • nested purchase items un-related to the gift shop under their appropriate tabs (ie admission tickets)

 

Purchasing a Product Flow

Original flow

Proposed flow

Deliverables

Tested and iterated wireframes of:

  • Homepage

  • Gift Shop main page

  • Plushy Organs product list page

  • Singular product page

  • Cart page

  • Checkout page

  • Confirmation page

Features simplified for the e-commerce process:

  • straightforward CTA buttons

  • micro-interactions that confirm the users’ actions

  • express checkout option with a PayPal integration

  • Clear order confirmation and next steps

Medium-fidelity Prototype

Next Steps

I would love to continue exploring their e-commerce from the inside and developing a more in-depth way to make their online gift shop a main revenue stream.

 

I also heard from user testing that no one knows what the logo is ( it’s a very rudimentary icon of their building). Were I to continue with this project, I would like to initiate a re-brand for logo and colors (along with lots of user testing). I’d like to create a Style Guide for IMSS to define consistent design standards and add more distinctive branding.