UX Projects
Library Spaces
Deakin University Library
The Library Spaces project sought to find out how students used Library spaces to inform a redesign of the Library to better meet their needs. It involved surveys, interviews, detailed planning and collaboration across multiple campuses. Results and insights supported the Library Strategic Plan Feb 2022.
Key Skills
Research - Collaboration - Ideation - Planning - Surveys - Interviewing - Presentation - Communication
About the Project
A well-designed library is more than just a place to borrow books—it is a hub for learning, collaboration, and community engagement. The Library Spaces project at Deakin University Library aimed to understand how students use library spaces to create a more functional, accessible, and student-friendly environment. Through surveys, interviews, and collaboration with library staff across multiple campuses, the project gathered insights on space usage, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. These findings informed the Library Strategic Plan (Feb 2022), guiding future developments to enhance study areas, resource access, and technology integration. The redesign would ultimately improve student experience, academic success, and the library’s role as a key learning space.
The Team
1 Experience Designer
The broader Digital Services Team
Cross functional Library teams
Process
The Deakin University Library is a complex series of spaces that provides digital and physical resources for students, staff, researchers and the community. Students and staff fondly consider the Library to be the heart of the University and a valuable space to congregate for social occasions and learn. The Library began a process of reimagination and needed to gain insights into how the spaces were currently used, the pain points of users and future ideas for an ideal series of library spaces.
I created a survey gauging library usage and promoted it to students. We also did guerrilla testing asking students as they entered the libraries on each campus and offering incentives - free coffee/tea/drink, chocolate, etc.
I collaborated with campus Library managers and staff to work on a way of recording usage. I used Library plans of seating and spaces and developed a way of measuring usage using numbers indicating how much space they were taking up. I translated that into a visual presentation showing coloured dots and then created charts. I managed various staff over four campuses and funnelled all the results into a final presentation to the Library executive team.
Conclusion
The staff were really engaged and supportive and were fascinated with the results. They continue to feed into their planning.
Personal Insights and Reflections
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Working with a variety of people can be challenging, understanding their needs and concerns and recognising their unique skillsets.
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I'm good with bringing people together to achieve common goals even though the tasks may be challenging.
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The success of the project was brought up by staff at a recent unrelated workshop!