Who We Are
The User Experience (UX) department is composed of Suzanne Chapman (Head), Sonali Mishra (User Experience Specialist), vacant (Interface Designer), and vacant (Web Content Strategist). As part of the Library Information Technology Unit (LIT), we help design, improve, and support the library's primary user interfaces, including the MLibrary website, the catalog (Mirlyn), the MLibrary mobile interfaces, digital library collections, and the HathiTrust Digital Library.
Our efforts are focused on interface design (interaction design & visual design), user research, assessment (usability, web use statistics analysis), content strategy, and web accessibility.
Contact the User Experience department at mlibraryuxdept@umich.edu if you have comments or questions.
See also: Suzanne's User's Lib Blog & @MLibrary UX on Twitter
Selected Projects
HathiTrust Digital Library - Regular & Mobile Interface Design
The HathiTrust Digital Library is a multi-institutional repository of digitized materials that provides access to over 10 million books & journals (over 2.6 million public domain and fully viewable) with a search across full text of all volumes, and ability to create and share collections.
The UX Department designed and developed a mobile version (m.hathitrust.org) in 2012 and recently completed a full redesign of the system in Winter 2013.
MLibrary Mobile
Designed interface, developed, and created promotional campaign.
Use m.lib.umich.edu on your mobile device to find library hours and locations, search the Mirlyn catalog, find mobile-friendly databases, and even IM a Librarian!
Interviews with Experienced Users
In the fall of 2012, the UX Department and the Usability Group conducted a series of interviews with 10 experienced users to study how they interact with the library website and what online services they value. We also hoped to identify what resources experienced users were missing or struggling with, and gain insights into how to help them utilize our resources more efficiently. Full report available here: http://www.lib.umich.edu/usability-library/usability-report/interviews-experienced-users
HathiTrust Digital Library - User Personas
In 2011, the UX Department worked with the HathiTrust UX Advisory Group to develop a set of personas to represent users of the HathiTrust Digital Library. The seven personas draw from past usability evaluations, user research, user-generated comments and feedback, web analytics, observations of use collected by the UX Advisory Group and their colleagues, and other sources. The purpose of the personas is to help staff working on HathiTrust (developers, policy makers, user experience designers and researchers, reference and instruction librarians, etc.) learn more about HathiTrust users, discover how we can better suit their needs, and identify areas in which to do more in-depth research.
Final HathiTrust Personas and a report on the making of the personas.
Party for Your Mind - Photobooth
The UX Department has participated for the last 3 years in an annual event to welcome new students and welcome back returning students. We set up a photo booth to capture the students’ energy and enthusiasm while also gathering a little information, in the students own words, about what they value in a library. Students were given a piece of card stock emblazoned with “My ideal library… ______ ” and were then asked to fill in the blank and pose for a photograph with it.
Photos available for: 2012 2011 2010
Project featured in the publication Participatory Design in Academic Libraries
