Discovery for Academic Libraries
The Challenge
In today's fast-paced academic landscape, the need for efficient and intuitive search tools is paramount. Seeing an opportunity in open access content, we needed to design a modern discovery system that would be built from the ground up with emphasis on WCAG accessibility, responsiveness, and scalability.
Discovery
User Research and Personas
Leveraging our strategic partner program with customers we were able to define desired customer workflows and journeys.
Utilizing this and other market research I was able to create 4 unique user personas which were vetted against user studies.
User Journey Mapping
User journey maps were created using the personas to help identify main workflows and friction spots.
- Main User Workflows: Quick Search, Deep Research, Idea Exploration, and Course Support.
- Friction Spot: Need to work seamlessly between devices and locations.
- Friction Spot: Workflows for accessing academic resources are often fragmented and confusing.
Prototyping and Deliverables
I built a Design System focusing on ease of use, WCAG accessibility, and to accommodate scalability, so components can work well alongside each other and render well on various device resolutions.
Working closely with customers, product managers, and engineers I turned requirements into low and high fidelity prototypes which I validated through usability testing. All of this working together to create a fully responsive next generation design that will take academic libraries into the future.
Development is ongoing but current usability testing and customer feedback suggests everything is on the right track.
