Abstract

The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, more affectionately known as Bobst, is the largest in NYU’s 11-library system. Bobst holds 3.9 million of the 5.9 million books in NYU’s catalog and is the most popular study space on campus. Bobst is home to some of the best study spaces on campus. The lower levels are open 24 hours a day and have reservable study rooms for group projects or exam prep for up to 11 people. And the Electronic Resource Center, on the first lower level, allows NYU students to borrow laptops, chargers, cameras, and other essential equipment for completing assignments. For many members of the NYU community, especially those with a disability, it is a challenge to check availability and reserve rooms and spaces. This issue is especially problematic on web/mobile devices. The problem, I suspect, is how might we improve an inclusive room/space reservation experience to check availability on the NYU Libraries website so that university students and even those with disability problems can make the room reservation online more efficiently.

Research

User Research and Co-design: One-on-one type in-depth interview and usability testing NYU students and faulty Zoom or NYU library physical space   Research Findings: WCAG Problems. Some fundamental accessibility problems show on the website after some website evaluation and learning from the accessibility checklist. Such as, Spacing and page layout problems; Color contrast problems, Text-heavy and Lack of support for screen reader users and accessibility. Search Problems, Few links. Users don’t know what to search here, they tried several times, but it seems faster to use the filter to get a quick result. Space info is not clear, it is hard to let the user know which library for them to book. Room type does not show up; No idea where to reserve the room; Limited page space for the user to select the room. Reservation Checkout Problems. Users only can check the information here or through email, there is no specific page for reservation calendar or management. But It is hard to find the location through the floor map. Such as, It’s very time-consuming, Wandering around to find an available seat, It is not clear about the reservation status, Accessible room.

Technical Details

Responsive Design, Design System, Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, HTML, CSS, Javascript.