Seton Hall University Library
As a part of a course Information Architecture & Interaction Design at Pratt Institute, in teams of 4, we worked on redesigning the Library's current website. Our aim at creating an experience that is user-specific & is easier to navigate through.
Client /
Seton Hall
Role /
Ui/Ux Designer
Year /
2019
UNDERSTANDING USERS
The team started off conducting surveys in the form of questionnaires, interviews, and observations to understand the primary & secondary user groups and their specific needs and requirements. Based on the key insights and findings, user personas were created.
Research &
Course-Specific
Undergraduate and Graduate students usually use the website for research purposes and course-specific readings.
Inquiry/
Assistance
Most students often used this particular feature. It needs to be easy to locate, prominent and accessible.
Prominent
Search Bar
The navigation and hierarchy of information needs to be simplified. Complex navigation structures aren’t time effective.
Clutter-free &
Clean Design
Library sites seem to be text-heavy and cluttered. Users prefer websites that are relatively simple & clean.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
The next step was to design the information flow and navigation paths for Seton Hall Library’s website. In order to reorganize the content in a well-structured and easy to understand manner, it was necessary to understand the users mental model.
The team conducted a card sort using Optimal Workshop, to understand how users group and categorize topics. This also provided insights into the language used across the site.
10 Participants | 50 Cards | 7.8 Groups
Based on the result of the card sort, initial information architecture was designed, which further went through a tree test.
8 Participants | 66.7% Success | 55% Directness
The results of the tree test indicated that there were some issues with the site map. Accounting for multiple paths to complete the desired task was important. Adjustments to the site map were made keeping that in mind.
CHALLENGE
Creating a website that is user-specific, intuitive, aesthetically pleasing, and responsive across all devices.
The redesigned site tried to minimize the problem of multiple links, improve the visual language and information architecture and hierarchy to provide a stressfree and easy experience.
WIREFRAMING
The team then went on to making wireframes using Balsamiq. A few observaDrop-down Menu for Desktop
Helps create a systematic information architecture and hierarchy and improves the website’s layout & design.
Suggestion: Use one-liners to describe and define terms.
Multiple Solutions for User Paths
A few features and options need to be present in more than one place as there are multiple user paths. For instance, book an appointment.
Multiple Search Bars
The resources landing page has 2 search bars - one for resources and one for course reserves. The users found that to be confusing.
Suggestion: Use one search bar with an option for course reserve search. (Used for site search)
Hamburger Menu for Mobile
The users are well accustomed to the hamburger menu and it is a more viable design solution for mobile screens as it saves space and is less cluttered. Suggestion: The word menu to reinforce the meaning.
Ask us
Based on research, students use this feature often. Suggestion: Placement on the top right corner of the screen makes it accessible on every page.
Research guides terminology
Most users were confused about what research guides meant and found the terminology to be unclear and non-intuitive.
Suggestions: Change term to Research guidelines, Research guidelines manual/handbook. Use one-liners to explain what it entails.
PROTOTYPE - DESKTOP
PROTOTYPE - MOBILE
The project was completed over a period of 18 weeks. Our high fidelity prototype was presented to the clients and got a positive response overall.
They really liked how organized and structured the site was and appreciated the site's functionality and information architecture.
One thing in particular that needed attention was the button labels, they worked well during user testing and were appreciated by our clients too.
Overall, the clients were thrilled to implement most of the provided recommendations.
A team of 4 UI/UX consultants worked on this project for the Center of Digital Experiences at Pratt Institute. All 4 members worked on most parts of the project together. I mainly helped with user research, user testing and user interface design of the project.
Devanshi: dgami@pratt.edu | Xin Su: xsux3@pratt.edu
Zack: zwalker@pratt.edu | Mingqi: mrui@pratt.edu
CONCLUSION & FEEDBACK
