Catalyst
Encouraging personal development by connecting users to local libraries
ROLE
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UX Researcher
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UX Designer - Career Explorer feature
TOOLS
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Sketch
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InVision
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Google Forms
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Zoom
TIME FRAME
April - July 2020
SKILLS
User Research, Workshop Facilitation, Research Planning, Interviewing, Personas, Ideation, Information Architecture, Sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping, Testing
TEAM
Marissa A.
Brenna F.
Fredrick W.
OVERVIEW
As a student project, a team of three other UX designers and myself were tasked with creating a digital product for public libraries. The goal was to assist libraries in helping its members develop new skills, find employment, and prepare them for the job market. Our team created Catalyst: a platform which promotes career exploration, personal development and community building by pooling together resources from multiple libraries.
Through Catalyst, the local library system aimed to:
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Expand economic and social opportunities to its members
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Build a digitally inclusive community
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Strengthen the libraries relationship with the community it serves
CHALLENGE
Research has shown that there is a steady decline in physical library visits in America. The amount of digital media available to us now, along with the stigma that libraries are outdated keep people away. However, libraries have been evolving. Many have incorporated technology and digital media in their goal of creating community hubs and helping patrons build skills. That left us wondering: how can we create a product that reintroduces local libraries as a valuable resource, when we already have thousands of convenient resources at our disposal?
GOALS
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Build a digitally inclusive community: Design a product that strengthens the library's relationship with the community it serves
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Highlight resources: Promote skill building efforts that go unused by the community
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Expand the economic and social opportunities provided by technology: How can we prepare people for new careers?
APPROACH
LEARNING THE INS & OUTS OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
In order to understand what our product would be offering, we conducted a competitive analysis based on public libraries in New York City, and other platforms that provide learning opportunities. This gave us insight on how public libraries operated, what programs they provided and what technologies they utilized.
OPPORTUNITIES:
We realized that none of our competitors integrated events, training, and a social component, which is something the physical library embodies, but doesn’t deliver online. Most competitors successfully offered events and training online, but didn’t offer that social aspect that would result in a digitally inclusive community. The only competitor that provided a social community and job training was Linkedin.
GAUGING THE PUBLIC'S PERCEPTION
Our team realized that none of us had visited a library since we were children. Only one of us knew of someone who still visited the library. We were worried that we would conduct user interviews only to realize our questions weren't relevant to participants who don't use libraries at all. We sent out a survey to help shape our interview questions.
MAIN FINDINGS:
HYPOTHESIS
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Our target audience doesn't think the library has adequate resources. They'd rather get these resources from more convenient platforms
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Our target audience doesn't know what their local library offers because they have an antiquated view of library systems
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Our target audience still believes libraries are centered around books
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Our target audience refrains from going to events because they don't know they're happening or they don't have a friend to attend with
USER INTERVIEWS
8 participants who were interested in skill building or advancing their career
In NYC, South Carolina and Maryland
via Zoom
MAIN FINDINGS:
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The library feels outdated to both patrons and community members. Most participants held the belief that the public library caters to children and the elderly
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Participants feel the library is not inclusive of everyone (age, profession, and race)
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The library is not a credible source for learning materials or skill building. Their services feel redundant because participants could get better quality resources through the internet or through their employers
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Users feel intimidated by the library because they don't have anyone to join events with
​
​
DEFINING
Our users
We found that our participants fell into two categories:
​Those that would utilize resources from the library to advance their career.
Those that would use the library for a sense of community.
PROBLEM
The resourceful skeptic needs skill-building classes and networking resources that are credible, personalized, and streamlined.
These folks are looking for tools that allow them to satiate their need for lifelong learning and to expand their opportunities for career paths they are more passionate about.
PROBLEM
The lonely explorer needs to expand her network and join a community where she can grow both professionally and personally.
SOLUTION
CONCEPT:
Upon assessing our users pain points and needs, we recognized that the best solution was one that made libraries as convenient as the resources they were currently using. We decided to create a website that pools together all the resources and events of nearby libraries. The only thing our solution didn't solve, was the lack of involvement and community within the library.
AHA MOMENT
Our target audience has access to all sorts of skill building resources, but they hesitate to use them. The first step in deciding to join a program, attend an event, or learn a skill is to decide what you’re interested in. I wanted to create a feature within Catalyst that would let users determine what career fields are for them and which ones aren’t.
IDEATING
DELEGATING TASKS
As a team, we decided to split the main features between the four of us. I focused on finding a solution to the uncertainty our interviewees felt while deciding on a career. My teammates worked on a mentoring feature, an events calendar, and a way to display classes offered by local libraries. We came back together to flesh out the main navigation. From this point on, I’ll be focusing on the career exploration feature.
WIREFRAMES
Landing Screen
My concept included having separate sections within the website for adults, kids, teens, etc. to signal that libraries offer relevant content for all age groups, not just children and seniors.
PAPER WIREFRAMES
MID FIDELITY WIREFRAME
Career Search
Once users get to the "career explorer," they can search for roles that they're interested in. That would lead them to a page with a circular menu. Each item on the menu represents a different tab, offering information on different paths towards that career.
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Most careers have a structured path, so the circular menu is also meant to represent a progress bar.
PAPER PROTOTYPE
MID FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
Forum
I included a "FAQ," where users can read and ask questions that might solidify a career decision. Of course, experience will vary on a lot of factors, so I included a filter where users can read the answers of professionals who they can relate to. This would hopefully help build community and ensure that Catalyst is offering information that reflects a diverse group of people.
PAPER PROTOTYPE
MID FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
TESTING
5 participants
In America
via Zoom
FOCUS
For the career explorer feature, we wanted to focus on 3 questions:
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Is the circle navigation in the career explorer intuitive?
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Does the forum give users valuable insight?
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Is it clear that the user can filter by who is answering the questions in the forum?
METRICS
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Success rate: 2 or more error clicks means the user was unsuccessful in completing that task.
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How many participants completed the entire flow error free
RESULTS & ITERATIONS
NAVIGATION
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Users expressed that it took too long to get to a specific page
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One user said "everything feels really nestled"
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We created a horizontal scrolling menu to replace our hamburger menu
CAREER EXPLORER
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80% of participants did not recognize our circular menu as a clickable button
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Users stated that the forum didn't remind them of a traditional forum
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Tabs were introduced throughout the entire site, including within our events calendar and course finder. These tabs replaced the circular menu.
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The CTA was changed from "forum" to "FAQ"
SEARCH
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33% of participants expected a list of career options
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One participant pointed out, "The title of a role within one industry could be the same title for a different role in another industry, so I don't know if searching for a role would be helpful."
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We incorporated a list of various careers
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Users can still search for a specific career with the search bar
FILTERING
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82% of participants failed to filter out responses. They didn't notice the filter icon.
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The filter and suggestion icons were made more noticeable
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A search bar was added so users can search for keywords
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Tags describing the person who is answering the question were added. This signals that users can filter for comments left by users who are similar to them. It also offers more accurate insight.
UI
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As a team, we didn't get to collaborate on a high fidelity prototype. Since the beginning, we knew that we wanted Catalyst to be joyful and instill a sense of freedom to accomplish what you want to do. This is what I imagine some key screens would look like as a finished product:
Take a look at Catalyst!
NEXT STEPS
IF WE HAD ANOTHER WEEK, I WOULD...
Continue testing and iterating. I would want to test out the changes I made to the FAQ page, especially. I would also want to begin working on a style tile for the website, and begin planning the logistics of how users would connect to libraries through some sort of onboarding.
IN RETROSPECT...
Since we each worked on different parts of the project, the features felt a bit siloed. If I could go back, I would like to take more time to think about how we could connect our features so the website could feel more cohesive.
NAVIGATION
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Users expressed that it took too long to get to a specific page
-
One user said "everything feels really nestled"
-
We created a horizontal scrolling menu to replace our hamburger menu
CAREER EXPLORER
-
80% of participants did not recognize our circular menu as a clickable button
-
Users stated that the forum didn't remind them of a traditional forum
-
Tabs were introduced throughout the entire site, including within our events calendar and course finder. These tabs replaced the circular menu
-
The CTA was changed from "forum" to "FAQ"
SEARCH
-
33% of participants expected a list of career options
-
One participant pointed out, "The title of a role within one industry could be the same title for a different role in another industry, so I don't know if searching for a role would be helpful."
-
We incorporated a list of various careers
-
Users can still search for a specific career with the search bar
FILTERING
-
82% of participants failed to filter out responses. They didn't notice the filter icon
-
The filter and suggestion icons were made more noticeable
-
A search bar was added so users can search for keywords
-
Tags describing the person who is answering the question were added. This signals that users can filter for comments left by users who are similar to them. It also offers more accurate insight
UI
-
As a team, we didn't get to collaborate on a high fidelity prototype. Since the beginning, we knew that we wanted Catalyst to be joyful and instill a sense of freedom to accomplish what you want to do. This is what I imagine some key screens would look like as a finished product:
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Most of the library websites were colorful, but used darker, outdated color combinations. I picked pastel colors to counter the belief that libraries are outdated and only used for books
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I wanted to use blue because it is normally associated with trust and professional websites. However, I wanted to stay away from a dark blue that was similar to Facebook or LinkedIn, since our research showed that our target audience has a habit of doom scrolling until they get overwhelmed