UX: engaging and involving students through user experience to inform library space development at University of the Arts London
1. UX:
engaging and involving students through user
experience to inform library space development
at University of the Arts London
Tania Olsson and Sandra Reed
2. Six colleges, one service
• Camberwell College of Arts
• Central Saint Martins
• Chelsea College of Arts
• London College of Communication
• London College of Fashion
• Wimbledon College of Arts
CSM Library; Ana Escobar 2015
3. Why user experience ?
• A different way of gathering
feedback
• Commitment to user
engagement
• Focus on student behaviour
and usage of space
• Planning for new build projects CSM Library; Ana Escobar 2015
4. Student involvement
• Mapping
• Observing
• Love letters
• Touchstone tours
• Focus groups
• Reflective logs
LS UX Project: LCC; Leo Appleton, 2015
5. Schedule
Phase Activity Timeframe
Phase 1 Recruitment to observation team April 2015
Briefing and training of observation
team
April 28th 2015
Movement observations 29th April – 13th May 2015
Static observations 29th April – 13th May 2015
Touchstone tours 29th April – 13th May 2015
Phase 2 Focus groups May – June 2015
Phase 3 Reflective logs June – July 2015
Phase 4 Briefing analysis team July 2015
Analysis July – August 2015
Phase 5 Reporting and next steps October 2015
8. Touchstone tours
• Walk and talk
• Subjective view of space
• Most / least used areas
• Suggestions
LCF Library; Ana Escobar 2015
9. Focus groups
• Observer feedback:
• College / UAL themes
• Critique of methodology
• College focus groups; discussion
on spaces:
• Type
• Layout
• Amount
• Behaviours
• Staff support LS UX Project: LCC; Leo Appleton, 2015
12. Project outputs / outcomes
• UAL UX reports
• Student reflective journals
• Recommendations for existing
spaces and planning new library
building projects
• Fed into student focussed policies
• Methodology for future UX
projects LCC Library; Sandra Reed 2016
13. Case study:
London College of Communication Library
Consult the UX report evidence:
• Themes
• Static observation
• Maps with pathways
• Focus group
• Touchstone tours
LS UX Project: LCC mapping 2015
17. Thank you for listening
Tania Olsson
Learning Resources Manager
London College of Communication
t.olsson@lcc.arts.ac.uk
Sandra Reed
Discovery Librarian (Resources & Communications)
s.reed@arts.ac.uk
Notes de l'éditeur
TO
TO
TO
We use all the standard methods of gathering feedback and continue to use NSS, PTES, PRES, FE Survey, LibQUAL, tell us about it – campaigns e.g. opening hrs .
Campaigns and in house surveys e.g. Catalogue survey, feedback from course and programme boards, SU sabbatical officers.
UX concentrates on behaviour within space, and this research would help us to inform development of existing spaces, as well as feed into the plans for 3 major builds ongoing at the moment at UAL
SR
UX as a methodology uses a range of methods and techniques which are often described as anthropological and ethnographical in that they encourage objective observation and reflection of user behaviour within a given environment or system
Employed 12 observers through our UAL student temp agency – 2 per lib
We ran a half day work shop to set out what was required for the 3 techniques our students would be working on, Mapping, Observing and Touchstone tours. This also gave the student temps an opportunity to try out the techniques.
Set them doing field work for 2 weeks at different times of the day, and all days of the week
SR
Here is our full schedule over 6 months
Students employed for observation as well as for the collation of data as well as identifying key themes / likes & dislikes
Senior managers in project team then drew up reports and recommendations across UAL LS & for each college
SR
Ist method was mapping student movements within library spaces.
observers were located at vantage points throughout the libraries and Learning Zones, at specific times of the day, and plotted student journeys.
This is a popular way to see if signposting works, or whether students use particular preferred routes through the library and if there are particular physical paths of least resistance within spaces.
It is also a good method to see where the popular or unpopular destinations are.
We specified 3 vantage points per area and each observer mapped routes for 15 minutes at a time.
SR
Second method was observation, again at particular vantage points (i.e. communal areas, silent zones, photocopy areas) to see how the area or space is naturally used. This complements mapping, as it allows the observer to see which natural behaviours occur within given areas.
For static observations students were asked to look at what was happening in a specific space and to note their observations under a variety of headings e.g. environment / actions / actors
Students loved mapping and observing as they felt like secret agents. It was good for us too, as they blended in far better than we would have done.
TO
Here our observers invited users, mostly students to give them a tour around their library. This helped us identify well used and unknown areas in the space and common likes and dislikes. It also gave us suggestions for service improvements from users. Again this was very successful peer to peer as our users were more likely to be candid with fellow students.
TO
The focus groups generated deep and reflective discussion
The observers told us about key themes in their observation library
and they critiqued the observational techniques e.g. we had big issues with wifi & technology so would make sure we have paper copies of everything available. We will also spend less time on static observation in the future.
2. A focus group was held with lunch in each library to discuss our spaces
TO
We kicked these sessions off with an icebreaker. Participants were invited to write a love letters or a break up letter to the library.
It was a great way to get them to start thinking about the space before starting to focus group discussion.
TO
All the focus group participants and observers were then invited to keep a reflective journal of the spaces the learned and studied in for weeks.
Participants were asked to consider what made a learning space conducive to their studying, wherever they were – so not just in UAL LS or college.
So they might be on the bus, in a park or in another building.
This was useful for feedback on the look & feel of spaces as well as specifics to feed into current and future spaces.
SR
The UX reports – made recommendations across service, and for each library
Reflective journals informed us about the kind of learning spaces that students liked, or not, not necessarily within LS
To inform future Library space planning projects in current and new library buildings
Fed into student responsiveness policy, processes and initiatives
UX is now embedded as part of our culture and we have tried and tested our methodology and will improve on it next time