Austin Public Library
UX Research / UX Design
Austin Public Library is a non-profit organization that provides the community not only public resources but also engaging services, for example, Shared Learning Rooms (SLR). This UX project aimed to improve the Shared Learning Room digital reserving experience - making users reserve the room easier.
ROLE
UX Researcher & Designer
TEAMMATES
Individual UX Case Study with Engineer
TIMELINE
2019/1 - 2019/5
TOOLS And METHODS
Sketch, InVision, Online Survey, Competitive Analysis, Prototyping
OVERVIEW
Overview
I worked with Austin Public Library for my independent UX capstone project in Spring 2019. It aimed to improve the Shared Learning Room digital reserving experience - making users reserve the room easier.
Problems
Currently, the online shared-learning room (SLR) reservation process at Austin Public Library is causing problems for users in the following dimensions:
(1) Overly Detailed Info Input: Users have to type in all the information (time, name, email, and room…) at first to click the “Make a Reservation” button
(2) Calendar View: It shows only the reserved time slots & is on different web page
(3) Technical Limitation: Users have to click one button to get result from the system such as available rooms
Solutions
My goal is to apply user-centered design principles to the library’s problems to streamline the SLR reservation process for users.
There are 3 major solutions for this SLR reservation process:
(1) Insert information following 3-step process
(2) Calendar need is now incorporated with the updated 3-step process
(3) Step-by-step button clicks to overcome the technical limitations
Process
RESEARCH
User Flow for Using a Shared Learning Room
Competitive Analysis
User Survey
Ideation from survey findings
DESIGN
Low-fidelity Hand Sketch
Initial version: 2-step process
Revised version: 3-step process
Mid-fidelity Wireframe with 3-step Process
High-fidelity Deliverable
Presentation & Poster
Project Show Case & Presentation @ UT iSchool
Project Poster
Learning
This project at Austin Public Library is an independent project. Special thanks to my supervisor, Sarah. She gave me a lot of resources and was very kind to help me.
From understanding the topic, finding out the problems, deciding what kind of research to conduct, and designing to solve the problems, I learned a lot. In the real world, changing the little things, for example, revising the process, can actually transform how things go. Thus, I believe the saying that "the devil is in the detail." In addition, the implementation of the 3-step reserving process at Austin Public Library is now available online.
In addition, I found out that people are also confused with the meeting rooms at branch and how the users are using the different facilities in the room. These can be the extensions of this project.