Enhancing the Library Experience
Timeline
October - December 2023
Role
Interaction Designer
Team
Hannah Aldridge, Sun Chong, Rucha Patel, Jordan Putnam
50+
User's observed
10
Users interviewed
05
Usability Tests completed
Overview
In recent years, libraries have transformed from traditional book repositories into dynamic community hubs. I was apart of an ambitious project to amplify this transformation using technology to deepen user engagement and create a more dynamic, participatory library experience. Note: While the Barbican Library was the focus, it was not an official partner.
Challenge
Design a digital technology that enhances the library's role as a literary hub and social space whilst facilitating and encouraging user participation.
Solution
The Barbican Library, located within one of London’s premier performing arts centres, features unique facilities such as a dedicated music library. We developed a digital music listening system, Study Disco, designed to champion this unique space, foster community interaction, and diversify content discovery. The system focused on intuitive navigation, personalisation, and community engagement.
Tap images to expand
User Research
Fellow designer Sun Chong and I conducting our initial observations at the Barbican.
We used a combination of naturalistic observations and semi-structured interviews, chosen for their complementary insights and feasibility within a six-week timeline. Observations captured high-level behaviour patterns, while interviews provided in-depth insights into user needs and challenges. Cultural probes and diary studies were considered, however avoided due to time constraints.
We analysed interview notes to identify themes relating to user needs, goals, and pain points. Users expressed high satisfaction with the library’s diverse offerings but noted some challenges, such as the lack of a studious atmosphere at times. Through analysis, we identified two primary user personas:
The Bookworm: Focused on exploring the library’s vast collection.
The Student: Seeks a quiet, conducive study environment.
On the left, you can see needs and insights being clustered together as we fleshed out our personas. On the right the beginnings of each persona and user journey are being developed.
Personas
Journey Maps
Key research takeaways
Users often visit The Barbican Library for specific purposes, such as accessing its vast collection or benefitting from its studious atmosphere.
The library’s exhibitions distinguish it from local libraries.
High satisfaction levels were reported, with few pain points.
Many users travel to the Barbican despite having closer libraries, often citing budget-related deterioration of their local libraries.
Users value serendipitous discovery in the library.
Users seek reassurance about the library’s facilities before visiting.
Most visitors bring their own technology for study or work.
Some users hesitate to adopt new technology unless its benefits are clear.
'Sarah wants an easy way of finding out if the Barbican can offer her a suitable and stimulating environment in which to work so she doesn’t waste time travelling there when she has a deadline to meet.'
'Michael wants to discover books and media related to the art on display in the library so he can find out more about things that interest him and fuel his love of reading.'
Conceptual Design
Using our personas and POV statements, we crafted How Might We (HMW) statements to guide ideation:
How might we reassure users that the Barbican’s library space offers what they’re looking for before they arrive?
How might we enable users to explore their interests further through serendipitous discovery within the library?
During a two-day design thinking workshop we brainstormed ideas allowing each member to elaborate on how each idea met our HMW statements. Where there was overlap or scope for multiple ideas to be incorporated into a single design, sticky notes were grouped together in affinity clusters. The SCAMPER technique was applied to the Barbican Jukebox, an existing library technology offering a tangible interface.
On the top left you can see the Barbican jukebox, with which we applied the SCAMPER technique. On the top right and the bottom are our affinity clusters, as well as the ideas being grouped according to respective personas.
Design concepts
Affinity clustering allowed us to reject and combine elements of each idea, eventually settling on three potential designs, with which we sketched out into storyboards. Of these three designs, ‘Study Disco’ was chosen to progress due to its close alignment with the design brief.
Study Disco: A way for people using the Barbican Library to study and benefit from the library’s music collection.
Detailed Design
We created user flows and wireframes to illustrate interactions with Study Disco. Key questions guided our process:
Are all possible actions visible?
How does the user know they’ve completed an action?
What does the user expect after taking an action?
User Flow Diagram
Wireframes
High-Fidelity Interactive Prototype
Having agreed on a User Flow and Wireframes, we developed a High-Fidelity Interactive Prototype to showcase how each designed interaction would function. This prototype was tested internally by our team before serving as a central tool for testing with real users.
View Interactive Prototype
Evaluation
Usability testing with five participants revealed critical areas for improvement. Potential participants were screened and invited to participate if they regularly streamed music.
A major issue was the lack of clarity in iconography, which led to confusion during navigation. Additionally, participants were surprised to learn that Study Disco included the timer and to-do list function. Their first assumption was that it only allowed users to stream music. Using this feedback, we revised the prototype, changing the text on the login page and introducing pop-ups to encourage users to explore the site’s wider functionality.
Post-test questionnaires and the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) were used to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. We analysed the data from these tests using Schrepp's UEQ Analysis Tool and by thinking of ways to overcome the most common negative experiences noted in the rainbow spreadsheet.
