Abstract
When the University of Miami Libraries embarked upon a website redesign
project in the fall of 2016, the intention was to make sure that user research was
foregrounded, and not an afterthought or window dressing. We started with a
detailed plan of the overall process, putting UX first, and conducted a preliminary round of research before working on any new ideas. We generated a series
of discovery reports that fall, which were then collated into a Master Discovery
Report, and then we began making wireframes, doing card sorts, and making
layouts and mockups (which led to more user research). We were starting to amass
a large and heterogeneous set of data and assets, and we realized we needed a data
management plan.
UX research tends to prioritize agility and iteration, and this is generally a good
thing, but you can’t just leave all that digital mess in the rearview mirror. With a
complex, multi-year project, you need a strategy to determine exactly what has
been tested, and when, and you need the ability to quickly retrieve the findings, and
confirm what action was taken. Our solution involved creating an interactive UX
‘database’ to collect and archive our assets and insights, one with browse, search,
and visualization capabilities.
This paper will tell you a bit about the project, the problem, and the data management approach we developed. We will also discuss our post-assessment design
and planning.