The New School Archives

Websites & Social Media

User Behavior Research

Tanisha Razdan, Roey Wang, Van Nguyen, Nahee Kim

Info 685 : Digital Analytics

May 8, 2023

MEET THE TEAM

Roey Wang

M.S. Information

Experience Design

Nahee Kim

M.S. Information

Experience Design

Tanisha Razdan

M.S. Information

Experience Design

Van Nguyen

M.S. Museums &

Digital Cultures

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Data Period Analyzed: Jan 2022 - May 2023

Client: New School Archives

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Google Analytics

Meta Business Suite

Archives.newschool.edu (GA4)

Findingaids.archives.newschool.edu (UA)

Digital.archives.newschool.edu (UA)

New School Archives Instagram (@newschoolarchives)

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Department Site Interaction

Analyze relationship and traffic flow between sites.

Instagram Engagement

Investigate engagement rates and follower growth.

Traffic Patterns

Examine user paths to resources and traffic comparison.

Pain Points

Identify homepage and search functionality issues affecting user experience.

METHODOLOGY

Used Google Analytics and Looker Studio to analyze websites, displaying metrics for improved user experience and performance.

Utilize the Meta Business Suite to analyze the New School Archives Instagram account performance from January 2022 to May 2023.

FINDINGS

& RECOMMENDATIONS

FINDINGS: ARCHIVES

High traffic on the homepage

Scrolling behavior

The homepage is one of the most visited pages on the New School Archives website, indicating that it is an important entry point for users.

Despite a high number of users visiting the homepage, many of them do not scroll down the page.

FINDINGS: ARCHIVES

Search feature usage

High traffics on special collections page

The homepage's search feature is highly used function. Returning users use the search more often, possibly reflecting greater familiarity and an active pursuit of specific details.

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New and returning users show great interest in the special collections page. Importantly, 2/3 of returning users have a strong interest in this section.

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RECOMMENDATIONS: ARCHIVES

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1. Enhance user experience with search filters and tracking

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Add search filters

Determine suitable filter categories for your content, and add search filters to support users when searching.

Monitor filter usage

Use Google Analytics filters and segments to analyze specific user groups' search behavior, enhancing understanding of their interactions with the search engine and filters.

RECOMMENDATIONS: ARCHIVES

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2. Optimize homepage for better user experience

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Emphasize Special Collections

Highlight the special collections page on the homepage using captivating visuals, call-to-action buttons, or featuring popular or recent additions, due to its high user interes

Refine Above-the-Fold Content

Place key information and navigation elements above the fold, as users tend not to scroll, for an improved user experience in finding needed information.

FINDINGS: FINDING AIDS

Time Spent On Home Page

As users land on the Finding Aids page, the average duration is considerably higher, which is 01:00 minutes, than others indicating that the content on the page is engaging and holding the user's attention.

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FINDINGS: FINDING AIDS

How are users finding the content they want?

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The user path above indicates how users are going about in order to find the information they are looking for. After toggling between the Finding Aids and New School Archives page, it is seen that they use the search function to get to the required research.

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FINDINGS: FINDING AIDS

Search engines represent a high percentage of the total traffic

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It was observed that most users, 75.3% access the website through organic search. In terms of figure this constitutes 16,200 users. This translates to having good search engine optimization. Also, it was found that the second prominent source of traffic was from direct sources i.e. by searching the url of the page. This constitutes 18.2 % of the users, 3146 users to be precise.

FINDINGS: FINDING AIDS

Search engines represent a high percentage of the total traffic

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• The two columns; source and landing page tells us where users navigated to after searching for a specific content. It is important to note that the search engine directed 19,721 users to these landing pages.
• The two columns; source and landing page tells us where users navigated to after searching for a specific content. 3146 of the users were directed to these landing pages after entering the URL.

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FINDINGS: FINDING AIDS

To what extent are users engaging with Finding Aids

As we analyzed through the data, it was discovered that the bounce rates for new users were higher than for returning users

It was observed that the returning users had a lower bounce rate than new users indicating that returning users were more engaged on the website and know how to navigate about than new users. It was recorded that the difference in bounce rates between returning and new users was 16.18%. New users are 16.18% likely to exit and leave the page as compared to returning users who are more likely to stay on.

RECOMMENDATIONS: FINDING AIDS

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Contextualize The Finding Aids

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• Make it easier to understand what exactly is the function of this page. As of now, users have to click on LibGuide to understand how to operate this tool.
• In order to minimize bounce rates and maximize engagement rates, this can be achieved by integrating a video clip of the same on the landing page of Finding Aids or a brief tutorial indicating how the users should proceed.
• Ideally placed on the first fold of the page which is the section that gets more attention from the users.

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RECOMMENDATIONS: FINDING AIDS

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What Are Users Looking For?

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• Tying with the first recommendation, categorize the “subjects” and “names” section of the pages in an order which fits the collection.
• As users land on the page, they have to scroll and find what they are looking for.
• This can leave the users frustrated and confused as it can take longer to find the research they need.
• Helping them understand the context and background of the information that has been embedded makes it easier for users to navigate.

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FINDINGS: DIGITAL COLLECTIONS

Time spent on the homepage

Time spent on object & people pages

The Digital Collections homepage shows a total user engagement of about half the duration of the main Archives homepage.

Object & people pages in Digital Collections have the lowest engagement rates and duration for user engagement.

RECOMMENDATIONS: DIGITAL COLLECTIONS

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Contextualize the Homepage

Help users understand the purpose of the Digital Collections homepage, particularly those who may be landing from direct traffic sources.

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Adding more context, such as the Finding Aids landing page, may help introduce Digital Collections.

RECOMMENDATIONS: DIGITAL COLLECTIONS

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Optimize Object & People Pages

Linking to more related content and increasing the discoverability of current buttons may increase the session length and user engagement for new users.

Improving the browsability and linked objects similar to the way the Collections pages are currently set up would allow users to browse similar topics for their research

Instagram Performance Analysis

Jan 1, 2022 - May 5, 2023

Competitive Analysis

Overview (Jan 2022 - May 2023)

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Data Chart

Total number of posts analyzed: 53

Type of posts: posts & reels (excluding stories)

Average number of reach: 566

Average number of engagement (biased): 109

Median number of engagement: 53

Competitive Analysis

Benchmarking (last 28 days)

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Published Content

10

* 75% lower than similar platforms (typically 26)

Content Interactions

55

* 75% lower than similar platforms (typically 116)

Followers

1.6k

* Higher than similar platforms (typically 661)

The New School Archives instagram account does a good job in:

• Categorizing important content based on their types and sticking them on the top, which is friendly to new audiences to get a general view of the account.
• Including relevant tags in the main content and images to increase the posts’ social media exposure.
• Engaging with audiences in the comment area to encourage more interactions.

Competitive Analysis

Competitive Analysis

Selection Criteria: The university’s archives Instagram account

Finding: The color tone of different universities’ archive accounts is the same (black & white/ yellow). The content and image style are similar, creating a boring overview.

Recommendation: further market research, user testing, or A/B test is recommended to help learn about the young generation’s aesthetic taste and find a new way to present those old content in a new attractive way.

Finding 1: The posting frequency is not consistent

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• There’s a big gap between November 2022 and March 2023 (also no post during September 2022).
• The overall post frequency is pretty low (1-3 posts a month).
• An obvious post-increase in March. This is the step that people should take and keep.

Recommendation 1: Keeping A Consistent Post Frequency

• Engaging with other employees internally, creating a group of content creators, and setting up a shared social media calendar to ensure consistent content production
• Setting a specific minimum quantity of monthly post (at least one post a week)
• A check-in meeting every quarter to see if there’s any topic that needs adjustments
• Stories could be updated in a more frequent manner
• Further research related to hot topics/trends/festivals is recommended. Starting from this point and conducting a post plan will help the account run more smoothly.

Finding 2: Plain Content

• The current content size of each post is relatively small (~50 words) and not descriptive.
• The main content doesn’t fully match with pictures/videos.

Eg. The example uses the words “serving 90s jazz”, but the basic image doesn’t tell more story or resonate with the audience’s experiences. Including video clips or sound-related mediums to present would be better.

• The included tags are not powerful.

Eg. The Hermes mask and mentioned artists are not tagged under the post.

Recommendation 2: Improving Content Strategy

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• The main content part could be ~100 words and be more like a story-telling instead of a narrative introduction of the piece.
• Making the content more relevant with the pictures/videos.
• The included tags could be more powerful.

Example of Good & Bad Content For A Same Topic

Finding 3: Overall Social Exposure

Finding 3: Certain Topics Get More Likes

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Through analyzing posts that gained over 90 likes, we found out that:

4/13 posts are related to fashion design (two are among the top 5 most liked posts).

4/13 posts catch the trends and fit the hot topics at that time.

5/13 posts relate to famous people.

3/13 posts are tagged with @thenewschool.

Recommendation 3: Increase Exposure

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• Catching the popular trend and increasing posts during that period
• Post fashion design-related collection content during the fashion week
• Increasing collaboration with other departments
• It’s hard to find posts that include the archives account from main departments’ account (the New School/Parsons School of Design) and ask them to post archive-related information during the orientation, mid-term, or final terms to help attract more attention.
• Further research/interview/questionnaire to students/faculty/staff could be conducted to help learn how target audiences perceive the archive’s platform and what they expect to see from its social media
• Using the celebrity/influencer effect to attract more social media traffic.

Thank you