THE PROJECT
SHARON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Overview
Goal: The primary goal was to make it easier for visitors to find what they were looking for on the library's website and update the look and feel to be more welcoming.
Timeline: This seven-week project took place between June and August in 2020.
My Role: I was responsible for user research, information architecture, usability testing, wireframing, and report writing.
This project was completed as part of my Master's of Science degree in User Experience Design at Kent State University. This was primarily a solo project, but some aspects of the user research took place in collaboration with fellow students. We also gave and received feedback on each other's projects.
Process: Here is what I did and why:
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Wrote a project brief to assess the current state of Sharon Public Library's website and outline a plan for the project.
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Conducted stakeholder interviews and a literary review to gain a deeper understanding of library visitors.
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Created one primary and two secondary personas to create empathy for the users and communicate their needs.
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Identified high, medium, and low priority tasks and created a task priority by persona table to help focus the redesign.
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Conducted a content analysis to catalog the current content and identify what could be repurposed or updated.
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Created a sitemap to illustrate the new organization scheme.
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Conducted a tree test using Treejack to evaluate the discoverability of the new labeling and taxonomy.
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Drew low-fidelity wireframes by hand to quickly map out my ideas for a new website design.
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Created medium-fidelity wireframes in Sketch of several key pages where the priority tasks could be accessed.
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Conducted a first click test using Chalkmark to validate the new designs and assess the ease of use.
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Wrote a final report to communicate the results and recommendations of the project to the stakeholder.
Results: The new information architecture and wireframe designs were primarily successful.
Tree test participants arrived at the intended answer with an average success rate of 75%, and they made their choices without backtracking 88% of the time. First click test participants had an average success rate of 86%.