UHN Virtual Library Redesign
DATE OF COMPLETION: APRIL 2021
Duration: 3.5 Months | Prototype Link: https://bit.ly/3x7yzct
Project Brief
“As Canada’s largest teaching hospital, UHN has about 15,000 clinical, research and support staff, as well as 10-15,000 learners in any given year. Our Virtual Library was initially built on our intranet’s .NET framework back in 1999. In the intervening decades, it was augmented with pages built on the LibGuides CMS. More recently we migrated the core site onto LibGuides as well, but have run into the situation where we have a mix of navigation menus given the legacy LibGuides. We need to develop a plan to standardize navigation across the entire site in order to make the navigation less confusing and improve our users’ experience.”
Current Website: https://guides.hsict.library.utoronto.ca/uhnvirtuallibrary
Team
Changhao Gao, Leiqin Shen, Wing Lam (Ann) Tse, Tsz Hin (Jason) Yung, Running Zhang
As-Is Research Methodology
We have conducted two rounds of usability tests and interviews to better understand the user experience of the UHN researchers using the UHN’s virtual library. Each round lasted 2 weeks. The first round started at the beginning of the project. The purpose was to better understand the pain points and needs of the UHN users, and the major tasks that the users usually perform on the UHN library website.
Persona
As-Is Experience Map
In our as-is experience map, we illustrated all four stages of activities a UHN researcher would do in order to write a research paper. The four stages are to identify a research topic, explore resources, engage with the resources and strengthen the research. We have identified their actions, touchpoints, feeling, thoughts, pain points and UHN’s opportunities to tackle the persona’s pain points.
To-Be Research Methodology
The second round of usability tests and interviews proceeded after building the mid-fidelity prototype. The purpose was to collect feedback from the UHN users who tested our prototype and to contrast this with the original UHN library website.
Design Statement
1. Anna can quickly access the publication cycle and understand its purpose by taking a glance at the navigation bar.
2. Anna can seek help if she encounters any problems by messaging with the chatbot 24/7.
3. Anna can use the intuitive navigation menu to access the learning and research resources immediately without any confusion.
To-Be Experience Map
In our to-be experience map we have focused on the explore resources and the engage with resources phases, which is also the middle part of the whole process. There are five pain points to address, including the overlapping of search box and banners, the hard to access resources, the inconsistent navigation bar, the cluttered navigation structure, and the hard to find funding programs.
Storyboard
The following six scenarios are the major changes that we made to the current website design, based on the participants’ feedback. Including learning about the “Health Narrative” page, get access to the COVID-19 research portal, try to develop a research topic, ask the chatbot a question, find the list of mobile resources, and acknowledge the notice.
High-fidelity Prototype: https://bit.ly/3x7yzct
Next Step
• Design a mobile version of the UHN library website prototype
• Make changes based on second usability test results
• Conduct usability testing for the mobile version of the UHN library website prototype