Bulk Renewal Application
01 Overview
The Product
A mobile app for student workers, volunteers, and staff to help manage a range of common library tasks – from reshelving items to basic inventory. By replacing paper workflows, this product can save time and improve both efficiency and accuracy of the users' work.
Core Business Objectives
Release an application as soon as possible to address the need to bulk renew library loans.
My Role and Interactions with The Team
As the Sr. User Experience Designer assigned to this project, I met regularly with our development team in the UK and our Business Analyst in office to do rapid prototyping and develop instructions on how to use the new app.
02 Discovering the Problem
When the spread of COVID-19 began, libraries across the world had to close their doors to patrons. This left patrons unable to return books that had already been checked out and staff unable, for a time, to receive items back into the library.
03 Defining the Root Problem
Libraries were having to address concerns from patrons about overdue notices and potential accumulation of fees.
04 Problem Statement & Solution
How might we help libraries around the world have control over all the due dates of items that were on loan before the immediate closure of their doors.
05 Designing the Solution
Designing for this particular project meant spending time with the development team and the product's business analyst to understand…
- The best method of quickly and safely deploying a computer application
- The requirements for Standard Interchange Protocol 2.0 (SIP2) connection from the application
- The types of failures that might occur during file ingestion
06 Delivering the Solution
Working at speed, the interactive prototype that you see here was constantly being refined, published, and refined some more. While working with the developers to refine the experience and interface, I also worked alongside the product's business analyst to proof the published instructions for how to use the app.
07 Testing the Prototype with Users
Unfortunately, due to the nature of my contract position I was unable to see the outcome of the usability test performed for this project. 😥
Evaluating the Solution
We were able to evaluate the success of the solution in real time after users were made aware that the solution was available. Thanks to my rockstar developers, we didn't have any incidents reported. As far as the user experience, we received the following comment on Twitter:
