This project was taken on to address feedback collected via talkback boards (a series of whiteboards with revolving prompts that asked students about their experiences using the library) following our return to campus in Fall of 2021. The project also incorporated data collected from a website survey administered during our website redesign, which included feedback related to study room usage. Each response from both sets of data was written on a digital sticky note, and presented to an internal UX working group. Members of the group were taught how to perform user experience methods to analyze the data and propose solutions to improve the user experience of the study rooms.
This included the use of affinity maps, in which members thematically organized responses into clusters to identify common problems and success stories related to the study rooms.
Members of the group built upon those clusters by ideating solutions on how the library might improve experiences related to the study rooms.
Once potential solutions were identified, members of the group were asked to sketch very basic prototypes of what their solution would look like within the existing study rooms.
In the next working meeting, the group rated the feasibility of the proposed solutions, and began to work on proposals for the top 3 most feasible projects. Three separate full proposals were eventually developed by the group and delivered to library administration for consideration. The proposals included estimated costs, contact points, findings from user research, along with the problem(s) to be solved.
Michael J Aguilar 