THE BIBLIO APP
Overview
Challenge
How can we help libraries, as 3rd party institutions, help their communities to to be able to grow and expand their skillsets to compete in the current environment of technology and automation?
Project Team
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• Team: 5 members​
• Role: UX Designer/Researcher
• Tools: Sketch, InVision, Miro
• Duration: 6 weeks
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Design Process
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
"Public Libraries are in a unique position as a free 3rd party institution to help communities in these times of technology and automation."
Background
In 2016 there were 1.5 billion in-person visits to public libraries in the U.S. More than 92.6 million people attended the 4 million programs at public libraries in 2016.
As the role of libraries becomes more prominent, technology and automation are contributing to greater unemployment.
Providing free access to information and services for everyone is central to the mission and culture of public libraries.
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Public Libraries are in a unique position as a free 3rd party institution to help communities in these times of technology and automation.
They can help manage the transition and reduce unemployment disruption due to technology and automation.
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Libraries can help improve patrons’ skills and help them find employment through being a more digitally accessible resource and becoming a digitally inclusive community.
EMPATHIZE
Competitive Analysis
At the beginning of this project (as with every project) we needed to understand the market for what we were trying to design. So we conducted a competitive analysis of 8 digital learning platforms which would be competitors.
Direct Competitors
Indirect Competitors
​ Our findings gave us a better understanding of the following:
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Understanding and finding our place in the industry by viewing others in the field
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What niche in the industry can our app fill?
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Who is our demographic?
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What features are offered by competitors that are successful and unsuccessful in this market?
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Which of these features should we use in our app?
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Which features are familiar, recognizable, expected, become standard throughout this industry?
Surveys
Link to research plan
From conducting our surveys we learned about the demographics of who we may be using our app. This information would aid in informing us about our potential users. It answered the questions How do users behave? What motivates our users?
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Surveys aided in shaping who we would eventually be designing for and ensured we were aligning with our user base. Below is the summary report of the first survey, hover over the images to enlarge.
Survey #1 Summary
Survey #1 Summary Pg. 1
Survey #1 Summary Pg. 2
We distributed a second survey later in the design process which I designed to confirm our work up until that point and to better understand how our users percieve language within our app in order to facvilitate ease of navigation in the app. ​
Survey #2 Questions & Results
Survey #2 Summary
DEFINE
Affinity Diagram & Personas
Following our surveys we conducted interviews which gave us qualitative data helping us answer the "why" or reasons driving the behaviors forming the quantitative data set. The next step was to synthesize and organize the information we had collected.
We created affinity diagrams which gave us a clear picture of common themes, users' motivations, interests, needs, wants, frustrations and concerns. and ultimate goals. Once we had obtained a well rounded picture of who our users would be we created personas to reflect insights derived from our target pool.
Persona #1
Persona #2
Problem Statement
Using the data we were able to extrapolate from the studies, and the insights organized by creating the affinity diagram, we were able to identify and understand the needs and wants of the user and discern major pain points for us to address and formed a problem statement which is as follows:
"The career minded intellectual wants to connect with the the community and grow career skills virtually through their local libraries' resources in a warm and welcoming environment in order to move further in their career as well as learn about new industries"​
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IDEATE
User Stories
Using the data we were able to extrapolate from the studies, and the insights organized by creating the affinity diagram, we were able to identify and understand the needs and wants of the user and discern major pain points for us to address and formed a problem statement which is as follows:
Design Principles
Opportunity
Opportunity
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Gives the workshop attendee the opportunity to learn and grow in their field. Continuing to learn could offer more opportunity (job wise) in their current career.
Growth
Growth
Users can learn and grow in their field by attending seminars and workshops hosted by mentors/experts.
Connection
Connection
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Users can connect with and network through other workshop attendees or through the mentor/expert who is teaching.
PROTOTYPE
TEST
The tests for this project were performed remotely as COVID presented a hurtle for the team to overcome in the form of social distancing. Therefore the user environment was a room generally in the participants' home where they could be without distractions or disturbances for the duration of the user testing. We interacted with participants through Zoom. We asked participants to share their screens while testing and like so observed their actions.
Participants were read instructions (of which they were sent a copy for reference) as to what they were to do and shown the home screen. At this point they were also asked their opinion of the app's home-screen. Participants were assured by the user-test moderator that they were not the subjects of the test as the app was the focus of testing. They were also told not to worry if they were unable to complete a task and encouraged to think out loud, actively voicing their thoughts while performing tasks allowing us to understand the users thought process trying to complete the tasks at hand.
A statistically significant majority of users found the app to be effective and quite easy to use.
Users appreciated that steps were simple, logically planned out and very intuitive/user friendly. User seemed to know how to use the app right away and become familiarized with it quickly.
Personalized recommendations were appreciated by users
Search options such as being able to choose based on industry or using a voice search option were well received and appreciated.
The onboarding process was the right length and left the users feeling empowered.
Allow skipping so that user does not need to log in or sign up in order to look around app
Message mentor before setting them as your mentor
Easing the process for downloading courses for offline use is necessary.
Enlarging clickable area to get even details
First and Last name on Sign Up
Clarifying the contrast of 'Next button' on interests screen for better visibilty.
Share buttons are needed for courses.
Fix RSVP section of events