Promoting the collections of an academic library
The University of Arizona Libraries
UX researcher | UX designer
2024
Introduction
The Collection Services department at the University of Arizona Libraries has put a lot of care into curating collections for leisure reading for years. However, the team realized that many students do not even know these collections exist. They wanted to make these collections more visible and encourage students to browse them, so they reached out to the Library UX team for help in finding better ways to promote library collections and improve the browsing experience.
Project Goals
While students typically use the library to find materials for classes and assignments, the goal of this project was to expand the library’s role beyond academics. The aim was to encourage students to explore leisure reading and engage with the library in more personal and meaningful ways.
Project Scope
Promoting these collections required a multi-faceted approach. It involved improving the design of the library website, rethinking how collections are introduced online, improving library signage, and reimagining the physical arrangement of the library space.
The collection services team, our stakeholders, provided a list of curated collections they wanted to promote. Among these, a selection of leisure reading collections was highlighted as a priority.
This case study focuses on promoting the collections on the website. I worked on physical signage separately in a case study on library signage design.
Data Gathering and Research
One of the questions I had was how important these collections are to users. When checking our data on Plausible for our library pages, it was clear which activities and resources are most popular. However, when it came to setting priorities, especially for resources and services that may not be the main focus of the academic library, it wasn’t clear how important they were to users. Because of this, I also didn’t know what to expect from our solution, how much we should invest in this project, or how we should measure its success.
To get a better understanding of our users, I sent out a survey to our participant pool (a group of users who have previously volunteered to provide feedback or participate in user studies).
This survey included questions to understand:
What percentage of students are interested in using the library for leisure reading?
What percentage of students know about the library’s collections?
If they do know about these collections, how they learned about them?
Are there differences in preferences or awareness by discipline, year of study, or other demographic factors?
How much interest do users show in related services (like reading clubs, workshops, or curated book lists)?
Competitive Analysis
The purpose of this analysis is to examine how other libraries, both public and academic, promote their collections and materials. It explores the methods they use to raise awareness of the resources they provide and how they encourage users to browse and explore the library further.
Key Takeaways
A gamified browsing experience: Many libraries use interactive designs to make exploring collections more engaging.
Encouraging text and imagery: These sections not only provide information but also motivate users to explore the collections more deeply.
Prominent homepage placement: All libraries had a section on their homepages to highlight collections.
Finally, we observed that the varied scope and features of browsing options depended on the size and number of collections, with larger libraries offering more sophisticated tools for exploration.
Issues with the Existing Design
Collection Page Visibility Challenges: The issues we had were as follows: all webpages for these collections, as well as the items within them, are hosted on Primo (the library's discovery system for searching and accessing resources). These pages are difficult to locate and are only accessible after users navigate from the main library website, which is built on the Drupal content management system, to Primo. Users typically arrive at Primo after conducting a search through the library’s search tool. As a result, most users encounter the links to these collections while they are already focused on a specific search. It is unlikely that they would pause their task to explore unrelated content.
Lack of Gamification and a Joyful User Experience: The purpose of these collections was to offer a mix of leisure reading, information, history, and general knowledge. However, there was no explanation of what these collections were. The information provided about the books consisted only of catalog records, which were not easily understandable for users without specialized knowledge of library systems.
Insufficient Content Framing: It was not clear what the page was intended to communicate. It appeared as a simple list of collections that seemed unrelated at first glance. The page had not been updated in a long time and featured only the title “Collections,” with no additional context or explanation.
Restrictions and Constraints:
The collections promoted in this project are overseen by one specific department, so It was not possible to make changes to the collections themselves or to the overall group we intended to highlight.
We could not add new pages to the main library website.
All collection pages had to remain within Primo, the library's discovery system. As a result, we were limited by Primo’s existing features and layout options.
Design Solution
The solution I developed, after exploring different design ideas and considering all conditions and possibilities for adding or changing website content, is a section of rotating cards on the homepage.
These cards provide brief, engaging descriptions of the collection content, along with links to their webpages. As mentioned earlier, this design is currently dedicated to collections managed by one department. However, it is designed to be scalable, allowing for easy adaptation if the collection holdings expand or if other departments wish to include their materials in this promotional feature.
Image.3: Card design section featured on the homepage
Testing and Evaluation
Success Metrics
To evaluate the effectiveness of the homepage card design, our primary success metric was the change in traffic to the Recommended Collection pages. We didn’t expect the cards to be the most popular content on the homepage, as leisure reading is not the main focus of an academic library. Instead, the goal was to increase visibility and engagement with underutilized collections and to raise awareness of these collections and their updates. These goals were shaped by both stakeholder priorities and insights gathered through interactive user engagement projects, such as talk-back boards and surveys. By comparing page views before and after the card placement, we were able to assess whether the design successfully directed more users to explore these collections.
Evaluation
To evaluate the design, I began by gathering quantitative data, with plans to focus on qualitative feedback in the next phase. When we launched the updated design on the library homepage, the only tool available to monitor user activity was Plausible, which had been set up to track visits to the homepage itself. At the time, we didn’t have a way to measure how much time users spent on the destination pages, so I focused on tracking the number of users and clicks on each card to observe how traffic changed over the course of four months following their launch.
Throughout the semester, I collected and analyzed this interaction data. I created visual summaries highlighting key metrics, such as total clicks and the number of unique users engaging with each card. This helped us better understand which content resonated with users and informed design decisions going forward.
Line chart showing the number of clicks and unique users interacting with the main call-to-action button.
Visual comparison of elements used to link to recommended collection pages.
Next Steps
We observed fluctuations in visitor trends, with increases and decreases that were consistent across all the homepage elements. The declines typically occurred during exam periods or long holidays, which was expected. However, there may be other factors contributing to the overall drop in user interactions. To better understand these patterns, we decided to keep the collection cards on the homepage and continue tracking engagement over time. In addition, we are planning to conduct user interviews with the individuals who interact with these collections. The goal is to learn more about what happens beyond the initial click and identify ways to improve the visibility and relevance of these collections.