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Intuitive
Easy Access to Personal Files
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Usefulness
The primary use of www.EllisIsland.org is family history research.
A site visitor may also learn about immigration in America, purchase items from the gift shop, and make donations to The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
Registered users may conduct passenger searches, view annotations created by members, and place search results in custom Ellis Island files for later reference.
Premium users may access the family history scrapbook function. This site feature allows a member to create a scrapbook and let others view it, either by issuing personal invitations or placing the book in the Family History Archive.
Usefulness is limited to non-visually handicapped individuals as the site does not meet accessibility standards required for federal government sites. Although the Foundation is a non-profit organization distinct from the government, one of its “official sponsors” is the National Park Service. Accessibility should be a priority for site owners.
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Interactivity
The interactivity of www.EllisIsland.org is excellent, both conceptually and in ease of use.
One of the first interactive steps that a site visitor can take is to become a registered user at no charge. A visitor may also opt to become a Foundation member for a $45 fee.
After the registration and sign-in process, users can access the passenger database, consisting of millions of records of individuals who passed through the Ellis Island port of entry. Passenger records, ship manifests, and ship images can be saved to Ellis Island files. These files can then be viewed at a later date or accessed as a member when creating a family history scrapbook.
Members can contribute annotations of specific passenger records for storage in the Community Archive. This archive is not open for general searches but is accessible only in the context of individual records that a user or member locates during passenger searches.
Next, members may create a family history scrapbook by retrieving information from previously compiled Ellis Island files, images available from the site, and other digital files (such as family photos). Audio and personalized text may be added. Members can open their scrapbooks for viewing by other members or issue invitations to guests.
The Ellis Island files, Community Archives, and Family History Scrapbooks all allow the user/member to shape and extend the site experience. Even the Gift Shop employs interactivity by allowing the shopper to purchase personalized items such as ship manifests, ship images, and scrapbooks.
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Navigation
A visit to www.EllisIsland.org begins with an opening page as there is no true home page. Prominent is the immigration search function, elsewhere called "passenger search." Click-through invitations to buy and donate are also featured.
Navigation is intuitive throughout the site.
Access to passenger records, Ellis Island files, and family scrapbooks is blocked by a sign-in process. However, once a user registers and signs in, pages are opened directly--in contrast to many sites that send users back to the "beginning" or home page.
Simplistic and easily interpreted navigational cues, text-based links, and detailed written instructions serve to guide the user through multiple steps of gathering, viewing, and compiling family research. For example, the site facilitates the passenger search process by providing results with exact matches, alternate spellings, and methods of narrowing searches within initial results. There are good instructions for adding items to Ellis Island files and then presenting "next step" options.
The donation area is straightforward as are the gift shop and Immigrant Experience sections.
Through inconspicous links located at the bottom of each page, visitors can learn about the The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (the primary site sponsor and beneficiary) and the site itself.
The family scrapbook area requires a slightly higher level of technical proficiency as well as patience for the dial-up user due to long load times for some of the stock images.
Pop-up windows are employed effectively to facilitate site use (i.e., offer help responses) without taking the user away from the visited page.
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Heuristics
My evaluation of www.EllisIsland.org according to Jakob Nielsen's "Ten Usability Heuristics":
Visibility of System Status: system responses that take more than a few seconds are indicated visibly except in the family scrapbook where image downloads from the "library" took a relatively long time; user location within the site is not always clearly indicated.
Match between system and the real world: terms and conventions are familiar.
User control and freedom: there is no page designated as 'home"; the opening page has a fairly prominent link that takes the visitor away from the site and to the "Wall of Honor"; mistakes can be easily undone.
Consistency and standards: terms and actions are used consistently, though not language is used; there is a confusing reference to "saved searches" although there is no mechanism for saving searches and this term does not refer to the Ellis Island file.
Error prevention: errors are consistently prevented by guiding users through each step.
Recognition rather than recall: the use of familiar terms and conventions (such as filing records or creating a scrapbook) facilitates recognition.
Flexibility and efficiency of use: registered users and Foundation members are presented with personalized information previously created by the user/member, which increases efficiency significantly.
Aesthetic and minimalistic design: overall design aesthetics are pleasing; dialogue and content contain more information than is often needed for effective site use.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: error messages are expressed, not as programming code errors but rather as prompts for more information or a different type of entry.
Help and documentation: help is available once users are at least a level deep into the site; the help button is signified by an "i" within a double circle and is the least recognizable symbol in the site; help and documentation as well as the FAQs should answer most questions that a user will have.
Thanks to the National Park Service for the photograph of the main hall at Ellis Island.