Sharon Public Library

Conducting user research to inform a proposed redesign for a local library's website.

Overview

Sharon Public Library's current website, while having a wealth of useful information, had become dated from a design perspective and had developed organization issues that impacted a user’s ability to search and navigate the site. The library staff requested that the website be redesigned in order to make it easier for users to find the information they need.

Challenge: It was determined that improving the site’s user experience would require more than an aesthetic face lift. Rather, the site’s primary navigation hierarchy needed to be reassessed in order to better group, and perhaps simplify, the top-down organization structure. Contextual links between branches in the site’s hierarchy would also need to be reevaluated and added where appropriate to increase usability without creating confusion.

Solution: User research was conducted to inform the proposed redesign as library staff was unsure of the typical website user's behavior or goals. User personas were developed to guide the redesign efforts and a content audit was conducted to help improve the site's information architecture. Wireframes were then produced for user testing to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed design update.

My Role: User Research, User Testing, Interaction Design

The current library website was visually cluttered and presented a myriad of top-level options that confused users. Content on the home page was poorly grouped making it difficult to scan.

User & Academic Research

Affinity diagramming revealed that the librarian interviews corroborated much of what was found in the academic research. The demographic groups of parent, student, job seeker and retiree (or senior) were mentioned often. The common tasks and goals mentioned also lined up well with the tasks identified through academic research. However, the phone interviews did reveal the additional persona of the librarian, which is not often considered. The librarians were well aware that their library’s website could be modernized or better organized and pointed out that the site’s deficiencies often created more work for the staff due to increased questions from patrons.

User Persona Development

Further synthesis of the research enabled the development of five user personas that represented the common library website user types which were uncovered by research. Summaries of each persona are included below:

Nicole - Working Mom (Primary Persona): A common theme identified across the academic research and librarian interviews was how often parents use the library website for (and with) their children. Nicole is our primary persona. She is a mother, educated, and in the middle of the age band for library website users.

Mark - Student (Secondary Persona): While many students use library services, they are less likely to visit in person and are more likely to rely on digital resources. Mark represents this demographic as he sees the library as a tool to get his work done and has little interest in engaging beyond that.

Edward - Job Seeker (Secondary Persona): Research also revealed that many use the library website as a source of free information and for professional development, particularly those on a fixed income. Edward represents this demographic, as he frequently visits the library website to look for employment-related resources.

Hermina - Retiree (Secondary Persona): Many in older age groups visit the library website to learn more about local events, plan a visit, and simply for their own personal enjoyment. Hermina represents this segment of users as the library serves as a hub for her community involvement and ongoing learning goals.

Isabella - Librarian (Secondary Persona): The librarians interviewed all realized the library needed to upgrade its digital experience to remain relevant in the modern world. Isabella represents this demographic as she has forward-looking views and wants the library to invest in a digital-first philosophy

Task Analysis

The table below represents the most common tasks a visitor might perform on the library’s website based on user research, broken down by user persona and priority.

Proposed Organization Scheme

The current website was first analyzed on a page-by-page basis to determine what content could be reused, transformed, discarded or added in order to better match the user needs identified through research. This detailed content audit provided a better view into the scope of the work before starting the development of a new organization scheme.

After the content audit, a look at the research revealed two key takeaways about library website users. The first finding was that a wide range of audiences use a library’s website, spanning across many age, income and education groups. The second finding was that while these users visit the website for very different purposes, they typically have some overlap in how they begin their navigation journey on the site. Given this, organizing the highest level of the site’s hierarchy by broad topics made sense as there are certain subjects that will likely appeal to visitors of any demographic.

The primary organization scheme will be topical within the primary and secondary tiers of the navigation system, based on common user goals identified during persona development.
Audience-specific navigation will be achieved by allowing users to filter tagged content on landing pages, versus creating separate URLs and navigation paths by demographic.
Exact organization schemes will also be employed in a tertiary manner, such as time-based organization in the calendar area of the site.
Redundant, contextual access points will be created for high priority tasks such as contacting the library, signing up for a library card, searching databases and browsing the catalog.

The updated organization system is shown in the sitemap below:

Design Recommendations & User Testing

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Additional Design Recommendations

Using the key tasks identified by user research, updated workflows were proposed in order to improve usability for each of these tasks while also conforming with the new site layout and information architecture. Examples of two workflows are shown below for reference.

Tree Testing: Analysis of the tree test results showed that 80% of the key tasks performed well after testing with five test subjects representative of the typical library website visitor. Recommendations for labeling adjustments in the final navigation system were made to correct the two tasks that performed poorly.

First Click Testing: First-click testing was used to measure findability on a wireframe of the updated site's home page design. The testing effort proved highly successful, with every key task performing at an acceptable rate.

Learnings & Results

Key Workflow: Search the Catalog & Reserve a Resource

The updated site design and information architecture performed well in user testing, verifying that the user insights gathered from research had proved successful in guiding the proposed redesign. Research revealed that while the library website attracts wide array of user demographics, there is considerable overlap in their key tasks and goals, making it easier feasible to focus the redesign on common user objectives rather than trying to accommodate each demographic separately.

Key Workflow: Ask for Help

Two staff librarians were interviewed via phone to acquire qualitative data about library website users. They were asked to describe who uses the library website, and why, to the best of their knowledge. A consistent set of questions was used to standardize the interview process. Additional research was conducted to find quantitative data about online library user demographics, preferences, and usage patterns. Some key numbers about library website visitor behavior, provided by the Pew Research Center, are shown below:

A wireframe redesign of the website's home page was proposed based on the findings from user research. The redesign focused on the following:

Improved search visibility and a better integration between the site and catalog search
Improved visual hierarchy, with related content more clearly grouped
A reduction of top-level navigation items
Improved labeling that better facilitates findability
Better access to help by adding a "Chat with a Librarian" feature

The updated site hierarchy and labeling system was first tested via tree testing to determine if it was performing adequately. After this, the below home page wireframe was presented for first-click testing with typical library users in order determine if the new design had improved findability for users while performing key tasks.