Coherence Flexibility Scalability : A principled approach to library design framework

Abstract

Peking University Library has a very large branch library system, which consists of 40+ branch libraries and needs uplift urgently to better serve users. The majority don't have any online presence. A few have poorly maintained websites, but the info is usually partial and outdated. Often users need to visit or make phone calls to find materials or even just to check the opening hours. As the only UX librarian on the team, I took full ownership of the design process from strategy to release, focusing on influencing product direction from a user experience design perspective. Our goal is to quickly onboard branch libraries to digital services to address the most important user needs, without adding extra maintenance burden. Based on the results of our user research, I proposed and created a 3-tier design framework for the library system, balancing consistency and feature customizations: 1. Customized: Fully customizable designs for special libraries; 2. Standard: Templated homepage & search for common use cases; 3. Static: Static info page with no maintenance. So far, it has been successfully adopted by 9 branch websites, with a unified framework and different styles/functions. The maintenance time and cost of the branch's website have been greatly reduced.