Dynamic Design: Creating an Intuitive Search Experience for a Library Resources Page

Friday, May 6, 2022

10:45 AM – 10:50 AM CT

Location: 355

Author(s)

MK

Michelle Knecht, MSIS, MSL

Senior Medical Librarian
Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine

Presenter and Author(s)

Tiffany A. Follin, MLIS

Medical Liaison & Outreach Librarian
Medical and Health Sciences Collections & User Services
Boca Raton, Florida

Slides

Background: In a recent survey of their medical students, the presenters found that complicated access to library resources via the Medical Library’s website was one of the top barriers to library access experienced by students. When the main Libraries switched to OpenAthens/Primo, it gave the Medical Library an opportunity to roll out an equally drastic change as well: a dynamic search experience. Rather than designing a webpage built by and for librarians, the presenters intentionally incorporated direct feedback from students, staff, and faculty as they built the new site to reconnect to and meet the needs of their end users.

Description: Early planning occurred in November 2020 and in January 2021 the librarians brought their ideas to the College of Medicine's Learning Resources Committee (LRC) for initial feedback. One librarian then coordinated with Library IT to determine parameters of the library website in order to implement suggestions. Initial organizational ideas were unfeasible and the switch to a dynamic searchable design was developed. The final design allows the user to utilize keyword searches, use a narrow by type field, as well as filter by clinical/ research resources. The beta pages were demoed to the LRC in May 2021 and shared via email to several key stakeholders at the College of Medicine. The page went live August 2021 and the legacy version remained available until December 31, 2021.

Conclusion: After the redesigned page's August 2021 go-live date, the presenters made note of pressing issues that arose. Informal feedback included broken heading links and resource links that were formatted in such a way that led to excessive clicking and/or sign-ins by the user. Formal feedback will be gathered via an end-of-year survey of the undergraduate medical education students. Survey results will be used to further reconnect to the medical library users, tweaking and improving their search experiences when connecting to the medical library resources.