Evaluating customer experience and wayfinding for the Montreal Archives.
Summary
The Archives nationales de Montréal are a recognized institution residing in the Gilles-Hocquart complex on Viger street. The building, erected in the early 1900s, was originally designed for the École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal. Used as an academic pavilion until the 70’s, it changed hands several times before being repurposed for the archives. Having initially been thought out for an entirely other purpose, the building presents some quirks that had to be worked around. The result has been a patron experience that is at times confusing and other times tedious. So the Archives team mandated me to research the in-person experience and suggest improvements that could help with wayfinding and the overall experience of coming to consult documents on site.
My role
I defined the scope and methodology of the project, interviewed the team at the Archives to gather initial employee insights and directed a junior designer in the creation of an insight report with recommendations and opportunities to improve in-situ experience.
Outcome
Following facilitation sessions with the Archives team, a number of preferred improvements were selected and are queued up for development in the near future.
Research & Deliverables
Process
Choosing a methodology
I made the decision to use a combination of behavioural mapping and customer intercepts to understand a few key aspects of the experience, namely :
How patrons journeyed through the building from the entrance to the consultation room
At which point(s) it was unclear to patrons where they should go next
What parts of the experience created frustration or irritation for them
For behavioural mapping, I printed out plans of the space on which to draw patron movements. For customer intercepts, I prepared interview questions to ask of patrons as they were coming out of the consultation room.
Observation artifacts
Myself and a co-observer used printouts of the Archive floor plans to document how patrons moved through the space and also any objects or signage that they might have encountered while navigating the building.
We completed three observation sessions on different days and during times of the year to make sure we captured a diversity of traffic.
A sample of our annotated floor plans
Insight report
I decided on the key components of the insight report and oversaw it’s development by a junior designer.
We classified undesirable patron behaviours (getting lost, doubling back etc.) on a scale from mild to critical based on how frequently they occurred. We supplemented our findings with feedback from patrons on how they found the experience and which parts were confusing or irritating for them. We grouped all findings under broad themes that could be addressed with targeted actions.
We made recommendations as to possible changes in space layout, accessibility considerations, wayfinding signage and other details. Some of these included :
Removing obsolete signs and objects to limit visual noise
“Artfully” blocking a stairway that leads to nowhere to avoid confusion
Adding cubbies near the consultation room allow patrons to leave a water bottle close by (water is prohibited around historical documents)
The Archives team was delighted with the level of detail in our findings and were excited to participate in finding solutions to implement.
Ideation & Prioritization
My junior colleague facilitated an ideation workshop and I helped the team determine which solutions were priorities and which constraints and obstacles might get in the way of implementation. The ideas selected were passed along to other collaborator teams (Communications, Cultural Development) to evaluate required budgets and timelines.
As of end of 2024, multiple solutions are waiting for final approval.
