Phase One
In the fall of 2019, I worked with the UT Austin chapter of Design for America (DFA) to better the overall student experience of study spaces on campus. The project spanned a year and a half, and through qualitative and quantitative research, immersion, interviews, and user tests, our team designed and released a website that addressed the shortcomings of the UT Library’s current website and met student needs.
Immersion
Our first step in user research was to begin collecting quantitative data based on a list of survey questions. The survey included demographic, multiple-choice, multiple answer, rating, matrix, and open-ended questions to gauge overall impressions of student needs and reactions about studying. Students of all years, freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, super seniors, and graduate students were surveyed with an even spread of data collected across all six categories.
Year of education? - Demographic
Do you study on or off campus? - Multiple Choice
Have you experienced the following problems? - Multiple Answer
What attributes do you look for in a study space? - Matrix
How do you feel about these study spaces? - Rating
What does your ideal study space look like? - Open-Ended
Would you join a stranger at a study table? - Multiple Choice
Would you mind a stranger joining you at a study table? - Multiple Choice
As a surveyor, I networked through the campus's social media pages and approached students in university spaces to fill out the questionnaire. After a week, our team received 100 survey responses with some respondents willing to sit down with a project member for a 30-minute one-on-one interview. With these questions, we hoped to produce more qualitative data giving us further insight into the needs of the study space user.
A Few Interview Questions
Have you faced issues finding a study space on campus?
What study space qualities do you like?
What are the qualities of a study space that you don’t like?
Have you ever had a problem studying in a study space?
Where do you go for intense studying and where do you go for light studying?
In a week, what percentage of time do you spend in hardcore studying vs light studying?
Where do you generally study and why?
What type of study space do you find it difficult to work in?
What type of study space do you find it easy to work in?
Synthesis and Insights
I interviewed the survey respondents for about two weeks. After conducting 30 user interviews, we began grouping/synthesizing the quantitative and qualitative data collected from both the surveys and interviews. Listed are the key insights from our synthetization:
Proximity to Study Spaces Matter
Students study at spaces closest to their apartment, dormitory, or department
Students study at spaces based on where the day "drops them off"
Some students study at cafes based on closeness
Finding the closest space that meets the needs of the student can be difficult
Overcrowdedness Is A Major Problem
Too many students in a study space can be distracting
Students find it annoying that others socialize over studying
Student conversations can be distracting
Prefer other students around them when studying, but not too many
Many would join tables with other stranger students
Group projects can be difficult to conduct
Students Don't Like Studying At Home
Majority of students study on campus
Students want to separate "study life" from "home life"
Home is a space to "unwind" where as libraries are a space to "grind it out"
Noticing that overcrowdedness was a major issue, we decided to hone in on this insight which limited our opportunities -- a misstep in hindsight. Based on this insight, we identified our opportunity statement:
How might we lessen the overcrowdedness of UT study spaces?
An Abrupt Pivot
Before continuing into ideation, we felt that it was necessary to present our information to UT administrators and get their insights on the challenge identified. My team and I met with the Senior Associate Dean of Students. In the meeting, the Associate Dean stated that the building he worked in, the Student Services Building (SSB), used to be a hub for student culture hosting events and org meetings. Now, however, the SSB functions as a center for student--advisor meetings and medical appointments. Immediately, some of us got excited and thought, "What if we redesigned the SSB's open spaces as a study space having UT culture return to the building?"
This landing spot was exciting yet problematic as it did not address the opportunity that we so quickly narrowed down to -- overcrowdedness. How would the redesign of a space address overcrowdedness, especially when proximity was another identified issue and the SSB was far from the center of campus?
Phase Two
I was made Project Lead going into the second semester of UT's academic year (Spring 2020). With me being the only member remaining from the previous team, my goal was to recruit more of a multidisciplinary team to produce a variety of unique ideas and insights. After an application and interview process, our team consisted of computer science, marketing, MIS, and visualization backgrounds. With this new team, I was excited to get the project back on track -- understanding the student.
Reframing the Issue
Feeling that the redesign of the SSB was a questionable landing spot to ideate off of, I asked my team if they shared the same concern after studying the data and insights from the previous semester. Noticing that we did not have enough observational research, I purchased field books for my team. We agreed that although a great amount of information had been collected, more research was needed before entering ideation. All five of us individually traveled to various UT study spaces and observed and noted how students interacted with their study space.
Synthesizing Once More
After conducting more research, our team felt that we had a wide range of information to evaluate. I assigned each member the task of discerning insights from specific components of our immersion phase such as surveys, interviews, and observational research. We began synthesizing our clusters and narrowed down to 3 categories:
Vibe represented the student's emotional response to a study space's aesthetic
Resources represented the amenities available in a study space
Information represented how students come to know of a study space on campus
Within these categories, we split the noted takeaways into student observations (OBS) and needs (N).
Based on our synthesis we came to 3 new insights that identified the challenges at hand:
These insights included many of the previously identified insights such as overcrowdedness affecting the vibe of a study space and students choosing study spaces based on which libraries they know (information) are closest to them (proximity).
Understanding Dave
Based on our insights, our team created a persona that helped us understand the needs and frustrations of the study space student. This is Dave...
With Dave representing a fusion of our insights, we began writing our opportunity statements. We used Stanford d.school’s template for devising these statements as we focused on emotions, amped up the good, and took it to the extreme.
How might we decrease Dave’s frustrations when it comes to searching for a study space?
How might we make it easy for Dave to find the right place to study?
How might we meet all of Dave’s needs in a study space?
How might we find the best study space for Dave?
How might we create a better study environment for Dave?
We then fused these five statements and came to an exciting opportunity:
How might we accommodate the various needs of the study space user?
Ideation
Feeling that the SSB would limit our imagination, I decided to conduct a more broad ideation session with the redesign of the SSB being one of the many ideas. Additionally, due to COVID-19, our project meetings switched to a virtual environment with our team taking advantage of digital workspaces such as Zoom, Mural, and Figma.
On the left, we came up with our most ambitious and practical ideas. We then began narrowing down the scope. On the right, we categorized ideas by labeling which ones were practical, interesting, and innovative. We then identified similar ideas and grouped them by whether they were an informational guide, shared social code, a redesign of a space, or a resource. We noticed that many of the ideas were some form of guide as indicated by the blue notes.
Prototyping
With the idea of an informational guide serving as the base of our prototype, we began individually sketching and visualizing the idea.
We synthesized the most exciting features from each sketch (categorization, virtual map, suggestion box) and began prototyping. Using Figma, we prototyped a website database for UT study spaces that recommended spaces based on student needs. These needs were identified from the surveys and interviews previously conducted. The student needs include the type of work (quiet or collaborative study), accessible power outlets, food nearby, proximity, and resources.
User Testing
With our high-fidelity prototype completed, we began reaching out to the students we surveyed and asked them to be involved in usability tests. Before entering these tests, however, the question we asked ourselves was whether a product like what we had prototyped existed. We found a seemingly outdated UT Libraries website. In our prototype tests, we asked users to maneuver through both UT's and our team's websites asking them to identify which features from each website they preferred and why.
We conducted 15 user tests. The majority of students stated that they liked the search option of the original UT Libraries website by inputting the location and their preferred noise level, but overall felt that it was outdated with many of their search options leading to "no result," and feeling that the website was too cluttered.
What Worked
The prototype was "easy to maneuver"
Liked that their needs were listed from the get-go
The website is to the point
Improvements
Students study at spaces UT does not consider the "traditional study space"
They may have multiple needs at once to filter
Based on this feedback, we added a section for study spaces recommended by students and listed the various needs a particular study space would be good for.
Phase Three
We met with the Director of the UT Libraries in the summer of 2020. In this meeting we presented our data, insights, prototype, and user feedback. Although the director was kind to listen to our team, he had more of a bureaucratic approach towards the process. Something as simple as a website redesign took multiple steps and we were surprised to learn that the UT Libraries website was in fact, “up to date.” The director stated that he would send our insights to their UX/UI Lead but a redesign of the website was improbable. With this, we resorted to Plan B: implementing the idea ourselves.
Since I was promoted to Studio Lead (Executive Director) of the DFA - UT Austin chapter leading into summer 2020, I decided to take on a consultancy role to the project and promote one of the project members to Project Lead. In the Fall 2020 semester, she recruited a new team with two of the previous project members returning and began implementation. In January 2021, the project was implemented as a Notion website which is now used by the student body at the University of Texas at Austin.
Website: https://utstudyspace.me/
Overall, the DFA Study Spaces project taught me the value of patience and what it does for a process. I am proud to have been able to work with such a diverse and amazing team for such a long period of time.
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