How might we design digital signs that captivate users and push them to interact with the content?
Overview
This case study focuses on the research, analysis, and recommendations for improving the accessibility and user experience of the MSU Library's digital signs. The study identified key pain points, including physical and digital interactivity issues, and recommendations on how to alleviate them.
Team Size
4 People
My Role
UX Researcher, Writer, UI Designer
Timeline
3 months (2023)
Project Breakdown
20% Design
80% research
User Persona
What do you use the library for?
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A quiet place to work alone
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A space for group study sessions
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Checking out books
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Computer labs
Challenges
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Navigating the floors to find specific rooms
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Finding study spaces that are quiet and not crowded
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Finding a book
Goals for the signs
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Intuitive and simple to read and understand instructions
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Low accessibility barrier to allow for more inclusive use
Heuristics
Following Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design, we conducted a heuristics analysis to identify concerns and noted how we could improve them. Detailed below is our summary of our findings.
Home Screen
Visibility of System Status
The “Select a button to get started” prompt disappears from the screen occasionally, which can confuse the user or make the screen look non-interactive.
User Control and Freedom
Some information is displayed in a fast, rotating cycle that users are unable to control or pause.
Help and Documentation
Screen provides accessibility-related resources that are not accessible to users. Links are not interactive and URL must be manually entered to your own device.
Maps Screen
Visibility of System Status
Default screen has no map; Cardinal and floor directions are displayed ineffectively. Some maps are unavailable with no explanation.
User Control and Freedom
No option to zoom in/out of map.
Consistency and Standards
Varying font sizes on map; Some are too small and blurry.
Find a Book Screen
Aesthetic or Minimalist Design
Some map colors are low contrast or hard to see. Too many colors and some are irrelevant to basic navigation.
User Control and Freedom
No option to input book title or genre. The process of searching for a book is difficult.
Recognition Rather than Recall
The buttons to navigate around the library look like regular text, not clickable buttons. Button display is also hard to comprehend. Some areas of the map have restricted access.
Findings
01
Simple Home Page
A simple home page with succinct information or map creates a sense of interactivity instead of display screen.
02
Map Search Function
A search function allows users to navigate the library quickly without having to digest the entire map.
03
Location Ping
Maps that ping the user's current location and desired location make navigation faster and easier.
Field Study
By observing 3 MSU students navigate the Library’s digital signs through different tasks, we identified users' behaviors, frustrations, and pain points.
For each page on the digital signs, we created tasks aimed to understand user actions, preferences, and expectations.
So, how might we design digital signs that captivate users and push them to interact with the content?
Recommendations
01
Improve responsiveness
The screens' physical responsiveness varied across the library. Many were laggy, had slow response times, and had occasional blank screens, causing confusion and frustration. We recommended refurbishing the physical monitor screens and making them the same model to avoid different expectations.
02
Merge "Find a Location" and "Map" page
Combining these two pages created a simpler area for navigation.
03
Redefine Information Hierarchy
Based on our user tests, users cannot find information where they expect it to be. Furhter user testing will be helpful in determining information hierarchy.
04
Intentional Design
Word choice and intentional design can help comprehension. Some parts of the pages were wordy and full of library jargon, which can confuse visitors. Buttons and areas on the screen didn't meet user expectations, which created confusion.
Design
01
Simple Home Page
A simple home page with a clear information hierarchy and text create a sense of interactivity.
Before
After
02
Merge "Map" and "Find a Location" Page
Merging these two pages eliminates confusion and streamlines the process of navigation. In addition, we simplified the map menu.
Before
After
03
Events Page
We reorganized the events to display a couple at a time to decrease information load and added more information about each event.
04
Ask a Librarian Page
To make this page easier to navigate, we added a search function with an accessible keyboard.
Reflection
This project was a valuable learning experience in the areas of research and solution-building. Many of the research methods were new to me and I enjoyed tackling them.
If I could do this again, I would invest more time in the field study. Gathering subjects for our user tests was difficult as it required a lot of on-the-spot confidence to ask library visitors.
When I gave the presentation about our recommendations to the Head of UX, I was excited to learn they wanted to incorporate some of our suggestions. I look forward to see what updates they will bring to their digital signs.