Exploring User Experience of Research Guides Through Usability Research and Design Recommendations

The project intern will gather and analyze information that could improve the design and content of Research Guides. This may be specifically focused on guides for an undergraduate audience, guides for Social Sciences disciplines, guides for How-tos, or other targeted style of guide or may be a “blue print” template for discipline-related guides in general. These recommendations will inform future directions for the Research Guides.

The intern will:

• conduct a literature view of LibGuides design and assessment research using library resources

• develop an annotated bibliography of the scholarly literature

• collaborate with library experts to create and use appropriate system statistical or analytical reports to understand local guide use

• conduct a competitive analysis amongst peer institutions, looking for standard elements across institutional guides, based on certain populations, certain topics, certain purposes, etc., (connected to the project scope)

• employ at least three UX approaches to inform a proposed design of at least one template guide, targeting the project scope

• collect, manage, analyze, and synthesize research/data

• create mockups of guides based on recommendations 

• share project findings in multiple ways (final report, project presentation, blog post, etc.)

Project Deliverables 

The intern will provide the following deliverables:

***Students also need to fill out this additional form***

• contribute to a weekly reflection “journal” about the project

• perform background research on previous studies and provide an annotated bibliography of scholarly literature around LibGuides design, use, and assessment

• perform competitive/comparative analysis of peer systems (Big Ten Academic Alliance universities)

• create mockups of the proposed guide template(s) or components to demonstrate best practices

• document UX methods used during the project with enough detail that later reviewers can understand or replicate (E.g., persona development, focus groups, surveys of guide creators, observation of users, card sorts, or usability testing)

• write a final project report for distribution to Research Guides content creators (and that may be deposited in Deep Blue Documents)

• provide a final project presentation to the library, to the Research Guides Team, and perhaps to selected Research & Learning and LIT members, plus write a Student Stories blog OR a Library Tech Talk blog post

Requirements 

• Interest in user experience research

• Available to work on-site (at least part of the time) during standard business hours, Monday through Friday, during various parts of the project

• Commitment to attend meetings with project mentors and library experts during normal business hours

• Familiarity communicating research findings or project work through reports, presentations, recordings (e.g. through course work, student group activities, internships, jobs, etc.)

• Ability to work independently and with initiative

Desired Qualifications

• Demonstrated success in the application of problem solving and time management

• Interest in libraries and online literacies