Introduction
Navigating Library Search, our library's discovery layer, can be daunting for novice users, especially for new undergraduate students, as it requires a different academic research skill set than they have used in their previous educational experience. Regardless, it is important for students to learn how to effectively leverage these tools for their research because they provide access to vetted, high-quality, and often proprietary materials, along with expert librarian assistance, making these tools valuable resources for reliable and efficient academic research. The challenge for libraries is to design search tools that are both user-friendly for beginners while still being sophisticated enough to meet the advanced needs of experienced researchers.
As a UX research and design student at the School of Information, I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to conduct user research on Library Search, the University of Michigan Library’s discovery layer, last summer. My goal was to uncover how novice users approach Library Search features and functions, and to identify design opportunities to improve student experiences. I was specifically interested in: How much information should be displayed in the 'Everything' results? What types of information should be included for each item in the 'Everything' results? How should the information be presented for each item in the 'Everything' results? (e.g., format, layout, visual cues)
After conducting interviews with librarians in the Learning and Teaching division, student employees who provide "Ask a Librarian" services, and undergraduate students, I compiled a list of five key findings and five key design recommendations, some of which were recently implemented in Library Search.
Process
My research began with some background research, starting with a literature review to understand existing research on current approaches to library search interface design. I then conducted a comparative analysis of 13 university libraries discovery layers or search interfaces, evaluating their features and design choices.
To gather the qualitative data to answer my research questions, I conducted six interviews with librarians in the Learning and Teaching division who regularly work with new students, often in first or second-year research and writing courses. These interviews focused on what behaviors librarians observe when they are teaching new students and what they wish was easier about Library Search. In addition, I conducted five interviews with Ask a Librarian student employees who field questions from library patrons in person and through online chat. These interviews focused on what novice users struggle with and need the most help with when using Library Search.
Lastly, I conducted two sessions of usability testing with two undergraduate students, both of whom had some experience with Library Search, in order to observe their interactions with the library’s Everything results page. I had these students complete a handful of tasks that focused on locating materials in Library Search.
Findings
My research revealed five major challenges faced by novice users of Library Search:
- Assignments Shape Search Behavior: Nearly all undergraduate students at the University of Michigan must take introductory research and writing classes (usually in their first or second year), where they often are exposed to the library’s resources for the first time. The assignments in these classes often require students to cite a specific number of scholarly articles, which has the effect of focusing their searches primarily on resource type.
- Prior Experience and Expectations: The search experience of today's younger undergraduates differs significantly from that of previous student generations, shaped by their increased level of interaction with technology and a lack of previous exposure to library systems. The result of this is that many students approach Library Search in the same way that they would use Google for searching for resources, such as using natural language or phrasing the search as a question.
- Challenges in Keyword Selection: A common observation from librarians was that novice users struggle to come up with effective search terms when making a keyword search. They tend to use either very broad terms or input full sentences and questions, which can bring up a large volume of search results that are often irrelevant.
- Difficulty Understanding Results: When novice students begin exploratory searches, they often use broad, ambiguous keywords that surface millions of results. It is daunting for novice users to sort through and find good resources for their research projects, both simply due to the amount of resources, but also due to the way that the resources are presented.
- Difficulty Accessing Records: Once a novice user has chosen a resource, it can sometimes be confusing to figure out how to access it. Many online resources have multiple access points, with some of the links being broken, and many students don't know which links to choose. In addition, students struggle to distinguish between physical and electronic books, as both formats are simply labeled as "Book."
Outcomes
Based on these findings, I developed a few design recommendations, some of which were recently implemented in Library Search – which is very exciting!
- Improve the visibility of help documents on the library website Library Search box: Currently, many helpful documents for students are not easily accessible or immediately visible. Placing a more prominent link to Library Search resources may increase the accessibility of these documents.
A prototype of the "What can we help you find?" search box on the library's homepage, with a link to research guides explaining how to use Library Search.
- Provide a description of categories in Everything: The Everything results view includes results from the catalog, articles, databases, online journals, and library web pages. Although descriptive text exists on these category pages, the descriptions were not visible in the Everything view. Adding a description that lists the available formats provides clarity and improves usability. This was recently implemented into Library Search, as you can see in the image below.
The 'Everything' results view now includes category descriptions.
- Include summaries or abstracts and keywords in search results: Students rely on reading summaries of books or abstracts of articles to evaluate potential resources, especially when titles seem promising but are not very detailed. Implementing this feature on our Everything search results page would help students quickly assess the relevance of resources. A recent update to Library Search makes summaries, abstracts, and subjects visible in the search result list within the Catalog and Articles categories, if the metadata is available.
- Add labels to records to clarify whether they are physical, electronic, or both: Introducing icons or labels to differentiate between physical and digital materials would alleviate confusion surrounding how to access materials.
A prototype of the Everything search results view, with green "online" tags on records that can be accessed online.
Reflection
This project was a really valuable experience for me as a UX researcher. I gained a deeper understanding of library systems and learned a lot about researching a specific user group. I learned about myself as a researcher - I enjoyed conducting interviews a lot more than I thought I would!
It was incredibly rewarding to see my research directly impact the Library Search interface. I hope my findings continue to help us improve the user experience and make our library tools more usable and accessible for everyone!