Hello everyone! As the school year comes to an end, I’d like to review some of the work we have done to improve user experience on the library website. The main focus this semester has been developing a redesign for the library’s research guides webpage. The goal was to make lib guides more accessible and practical for students. The library’s research guides are an important resource for students looking for research help. However, according to web analytic reports from SpringShare, user activity on the webpage is quite low. In attempt to uncover and address the usability issues on the webpage, we performed a UX study consisting of three parts:
Part I: The Card Sort Study
We began our UX journey by addressing the most pressing concern on the lib guides page: labels. We decided that before we test the layout of the webpage, we need to fix the labels so that users can focus on design issues rather than content-based issues. So using Optimal Workshop, we administered a card sorting study to the student body. We advertised the card sort study during tabling events and on plasma TVs around campus. As a result, 352 accessed the card sort link online, and 115 student completed the study. Using Optimal Workshop analytical tools, such as the standardization grid and similarity matrix, we created labels that appeared most frequently and seemed more intuitive for students. The original navigation menu on the lib guides page filtered the content “by subject” “all guides” “by group” “by type” and “by owner.” Based on student responses from the card sort study, we decided to replace the menu labels with the following labels, which tuned up most frequently in the study: “All Guides” “Guides by Subject” “Research Help” and “Guides for Faculty.”
Part II: Scribbling Interviews
After addressing the labeling issues, we moved on the the interface design. We tested two low-fidelity prototypes of the webpage to figure out which layout was most comprehensible and usable for students to access research guides. In attempt to uncover strictly structural issues with the design, we administered scribbling tests to five students. In these tests, students were given two versions/prototypes of the lib guides page and told to highlight and note any confusing elements with yellow, unnecessary elements with red, and helpful elements with green. Based on user responses, we were able to pinpoint problematic areas in our low-fidelity designs (such as the side-bar navigation). We developed and tested another series of 2 low-fidelity prototypes based on our user feedback before moving on to high-fidelity prototyping.
Part III: High-Fidelity Prototype Testing
The last and final part of our UX Study consisted of testing high-fidelity prototypes. Based on our scribbling studies, users indicated a preference for a horizontal navigation bar, collapsable labels, a welcome message, and an immediately accessible search box. Using Adobe XD, we designed the following interactive prototype of the lib guides page. In addition to the desktop version, we also designed and tested a mobile version so that the webpage is optimized for different screen sizes.
Moving Forward
The UX research and design work done for the library’s research guides is a great step forward to making it more user friendly and usable for our student body. However, it is important to consider the accessibility of the webpage– meaning, how discoverable is the library guides page from the library’s home page? It would be helpful to conduct a UX research study on the library’s home page to see how easily users can navigate to the lib guides page upon landing on the site. This will undoubtedly take us one step forward in our mission to make the lib guides more accessible and usable for CityTech students.
