Faster, Effortless Research Resource Discovery
Uncovering how digital-native students discover research resources on the library website and addressing their needs
While most students found relevant resources, the experience was frustrating and inefficient, with a SUS of 41.3. Students relied on the search bar, but limited results forced them to skim, which was difficult due to information overload. Additionally, the multi-column layout, with unclear grouping, led to unfocused exploration. We proposed actionable solutions to address these issues.
SVA research guides are a starting point of students' research
The School of Visual Arts (SVA) is a leading art and design college in NYC. Its library offers 44 unique research guide pages to help students start their research with curated resources and tips across various subjects.
Library struggles to make guides self-serve and widely used
SVA Library faced a high volume of inquiries and aimed to make its services more self-serve, reducing reliance on direct librarian support. It also hoped to increase effective use of research guides, but a lack of insight into how users navigate the site made it challenging to improve.
Uncover how users navigate and find resources on research guides to improve their journey
Used behavioral research methods to understand how users navigate
Tested 2 high-priority pages in realistic academic research scenarios
To deliver the most impact within a limited timeframe, we selected the most frequently used and easily templatized pages for our testing scope. We designed tasks to reflect early-stage research scenarios, aligning with the guide’s intent. In both tasks, participants were asked to find resources relevant to a prompt using the descriptions on the pages.
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Triangulated multiple data sources to derive findings
As a first step in our analysis, we used a rainbow sheet to synthesize common behavioral patterns and RTA feedback, giving us a broad overview of the core findings. Next, we triangulated quantitative metrics, eye-tracking data, and user quotes to extract insights and craft the story. Eye-tracking revealed what users actually did; quotes explained why they behaved that way, uncovering their needs; and quantitative metrics quantified the impact and severity of each issue.
Most users could find helpful resources, but the experience was frustrating & inefficient
While 79% of students could complete the tasks, SUS score of just 41.3 indicates the user satisfaction of the research guide pages is poor. We identified 2 major UX issues each for the online resources and design archives pages.
Discovering relevant databases is difficult without prior knowledge due to search and skim difficulties
In the testing sessions, we identified that uses prefer to use the search bar because they expected the search bar could show them the related resources sooner, like they experience in other websites.
Students often try to search, but the current functionality fails to return relevant databases when keywords are complex—such as those with multiple words or typographic errors.
Instead of using the search bar, students attempted to skim the page, but the dense text and lack of information hierarchy made this difficult.
Make the content easier to skim by visual hierarchy and search bar experience.
I recommended improving skimmability to help SVA students better understand the databases and more easily identify those relevant to their research. Specifically, I suggested increasing the logo size, enhancing the font size and weight of database labels, adding short keywords, and reducing the amount of descriptive text.
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Improve the search bar to support varied and complex queries.
I recommended enhancing the search functionality to be more robust, regardless of the keywords used, for example, by better handling complex queries and correcting typographic errors.
Resources in the third column and below the fold often go unnoticed
Many students navigated the page without grasping how columns were divided by category. The labels were too small to see, and the categories themselves were unclear and sometimes overlapped, offering no reliable cues to help users focus their search.
Because there was no clear category focus, many users scrolled inconsistently between columns. They often had to scroll back up multiple times to catch skipped resources, affecting efficiency. More importantly, the layout created unexpected attention gaps, with the third column receiving less attention than the first two columns.
but it unintentionally drew uneven attention, making the third column less noticeable.
Make category groups noticeable and intuitive. Use a 1-column tab for linear focused browsing
We recommended using the existing tab component to group resources, making categories more visible and ensuring feasibility. We also advised switching to a single-column layout so users don’t have to jump between columns, which enhances efficiency and eliminates unexpected attention gaps.
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Successfully Extended Impact Across Guides, Beyond Scope
At the end of the project, we presented our research findings and recommendations to the client and shared slide deck, problem list, video reel and visual summary. They found our insights both interesting and helpful. Despite website constraints and a limited timeframe, we successfully focused on high-impact areas and delivered recommendations applicable to other research guides, as reflected in the following client quote.
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