Overview

The UCLA Library came to Viget with a request to modernize their current website and make it more usable for students, faculty, and staff. Our work with them spanned two phases — a discovery phase and a design phase. During the discovery phase, our team built an understanding of the current website, stakeholder opinions, and end-user perceptions. During the design phase, we built on our initial findings to develop a new visual design and information architecture for the site.

My role in phase one of the project was a blend of analytics and UX research. In the early weeks of our project, I analyzed the website Google Analytics data to identify patterns in user behavior. Example findings included shallow navigational paths across the website and poor performance metrics of certain pages deemed high priority in stakeholder interviews. My quantitative findings helped my team understand what was happening on the site, and together we conducted user research to better understand why.

As a team, we conducted 40 moderated interviews with students, faculty, and staff to explore perceptions of the website and typical behavioral patterns. Key findings of phase one included:

• The search functionality was optimized for information experts (e.g. librarians) rather than novice information seekers (e.g. students — the primary user group)

• The Library website felt intimidating, and should have a clear ‘welcoming’ voice that matches the experience of physical library.

• Library end-users developed “workaround” navigation techniques to make up for complex and confusing website navigation.

• Library end-users were aware that the UCLA Library website contained a wealth resources but they often struggled with the website’s page density.

• The Library website had a learning curve that required inherited knowledge.

During phase two of the project, I conducted a quantitative content audit to identify opportunities to streamline the site, reduce redundant or outdate content, and further inform design choices for the new site. The designers on my team built on the quantitative foundation, created designs, and conducted treejack and usability tests.

Result

We handed off new designs to the UCLA Library team that provided a streamlined, welcoming, and intuitive experience.

Key Learnings

• Building stakeholder trust is key to project success, especially in complex organizations like universities

• Analytics data and user research data can work hand in hand to make a compelling and persuasive case for design direction

• The most frequent user group of a site (e.g. librarians) is not always the user group to prioritize when designing (e.g. students)

• Design for novice users — experts will find their way