Building a UX Army at Your Library

Editor's Notes

• #2: Will talk about A little about our institution and where we started from Talk about the redesign process we used for our new website Will focus on some of the strategies we used to infuse UX principles, communication, and collaboration throughout the project Time for questions at the end
• #3: Founded in 1963… UCF is 1 of 12 public univs in FL.. So a very young university, but quickly gaining national prominence… One reason is size! Big is an understatement: 2nd largest 4-year univ in U.S.! Large undergrad population: 86% undergrad, 14% grad… Also very diverse, with over 45% of students from minority groups… UCF also has been on the forefront of delivering courses online… Currently, 36% of all courses delivered Online, Mixed Mode, or Video… last year, over 75% of all students took at least one online course… As a quick aside, despite the univ’s enormity, the library staff is relatively small and the budget has been flat or declining for almost a decade… I’m sure many of you can identify with these trends! So, long story short… knew we had to develop a website that appealed to a very large & diverse audience, that was modern and sustainable with a small library staff and budget, and that was fully responsive and mobile/tablet friendly… and that was better in every way than our previous site, which was very good in its heydey, but no longer met our needs...
• #4: Silos - old page had repeated info in many places, etc. Branches and regionals rarely mentioned / had separate sites with redundant content Old site had at least 500-600 pages, and 1000’s of files of every type Outdated style “Old man’s tan” Lots of large text blocks Lots of jargon Lots of drop down menus and accordion menus Wasn’t fully responsive / separate mobile site
• #5: Redesign process started with Library Administration forming WRAPT… Key players, small, able to make decisions and guide process My primary role was to be project manager, to handle bureaucracy and administrative tasks This was important, because it allowed key players to do what they do best Very soon decided we needed to revive WWG as well Had existed in the past, but had become inactive and largely ineffective… Very large group… probably sounds crazy!... But worked because it involved every department Rebooted WWG focused on content while WRAPT focused more on design… Carrie will talk a little more about how we involved everyone one, but this was a big part of it
• #6: Catalyst for the change A new way to do things Big advantage -- forced us to do everything new, from the ground up -- nothing imported
• #7: CM: Used wide variety of methods and involved everyone: Environmental scan, surveys, personas, card sorting,social media, usability testing, data analysis Motivated staff to participate and follow along with the process Preached user first, inclusivity, cleanness, simplicity, etc. Used a lot of shared pages -- forced staff to collaborate, reduce redundancy, focus on what user would want
• #8: BC (also CM & TB if want): Joint pages Most requested info on homepage: hours, study rooms, computers, print/copy/scan, etc. Clear, concise content throughout - less words, less jargon More images, photos, and graphics - like Nate Hill said in keynote Used usability testing to lead design
• #9: CM (also BC & TB if want): Working groups - databases, videos, guides, social media Manuals - Admin and Style/Procedures Reports & accountability - public reports, minutes, agenda, etc. Analytics My Account page
• #10: CM, BC, & TB