Library Tracker
Background
Berkeley has 27 libraries with different floors, each with different sets of accommodations, hours, and availabilities. Students want to find study spots efficiently, but don’t have a way of knowing how crowded a library is until they get there—there’s a need for a good resource to identify and track capacity of study spots on campus. How might we make it easier for students to find places to study?
Ideation & Need-finding
In a group, we conducted user surveys and interviews to get a better sense of what students are struggling with when finding a library. Survey results showed that:
58.3% of respondents said that they either always or often struggled with finding a seat in the library. And 0% said they never struggled with finding a seats.
97.7% of respondents wished that they can check the capacity of a library before reaching the place. 72.1% wished that they knew if the place had outlets and other amenities, and 48% wanted to know about food restrictions.
Survey results
These statistics show that students often go into libraries unprepared for what their study experience will turn out to be, which takes away from time used to study. Students would like to make more informed decisions about where to study before they get to a library, and features should be easily accessible and understandable, so students can make an informed decision as quickly as possible.
Prototyping
I determined that the best way to serve user needs without sacrificing convenience and accessibility would be through the app interface. To brainstorm, I created a mind map and a lo-fi sketch prototype.
I envisioned this app to contain two main pages:
Home page, representing a map of libraries
From survey results, I determined that each library listing should include its hours, distance from user’s current location, and library-specific amenities/restrictions
Survey results also indicated that seat availability was a central concern — to address this, I made library capacity the main focus of each library listing.
Individual library pages
The main change from low- to mid-fi prototype was the addition of Instagram-style “notes” from friends
Thinking about the deeper motivations behind why people chose specific libraries to study at, I wanted to design a feature that could better support social behavior.
Mid-fi Prototype
Feedback & Iteration
To get feedback on my current mid-fi prototype, I conducted usability tests which asked users to use the mid-fi prototype as if they were a college student looking for a library to study. Throughout tasks, I asked users to walk through their thought process and share thoughts. Tasks involved asking them which library looks the most appealing, then asking them to find out more information about a specific library, and friends currently studying at that library.
Feedback I received included
Improvements needed for the prototype, including making icons smaller because they aren’t clickable, adding a map and search bar functionality
Improvements to existing components, such as that the capacity tracker should include times and that the friends list should be bigger.
Users enjoyed friend interactions, and offered ideas on additional features
Most notably, being able to see in the map view which friends are at which library.
e.g. adding/removing friends, control who sees location
Final Product
Icons so users could see which of their friends are at what libraries