AO.
Baltimore County Public Library
A mobile interface for the Baltimore County Public Library (BCPL) System.
My Role:
Design, Research &
Prototyping
Project Brief:
The Baltimore County Public Library system is a network of 19 branches across Central Maryland. BCPL and its respective branches offer a wide variety of free resources, activities, and services that many customers and community members are unaware of — including legal aid, college and career prep, scholarly research databases, TV/movie/music streaming, and many more.
Problems:
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Poor customer engagement/awareness resulting in underutilized resources.
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Lack of personalization.
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No notification system/newsletter to share events with community members.
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Third-party apps are required to download and view digital content.
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Poor accessibility/data retrieval.
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Wi-Fi dependent.
Solution:
BCPL's Mobile App consolidates all available features to improve user accessibility, awareness and engagement while optimizing the check out and retrieval process for physical and digital media.
Design Process:
Brand Analysis
For this design, I focused on updating features and improving usability without altering BCPL's established brand identity. Maintaining a consistent visual theme will help ease the transition from website to app.
Type Family:
Arial Regular
Arial Bold
Arial Bold Italics
Headings:
Competitor Analysis
Currently, BCPL users are required to download a third-party app to view their digital media. I analyzed these apps as well as a few competitors to determine the pros and cons of the current solution and gain insight on how to integrate popular features.
Popular Features:
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Digital library card.
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Track return dates & send reminders.
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Embedded e-book reader and audio player.
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Download titles for offline reading & listening.
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Browse the digital and physical catalog.
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Save titles and use tags to create personalized reading lists.
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Send E-books to Kindle, Nook, etc.
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Sync reading/listening position on all devices.
Developing the User Flow
When creating the user flow, I wanted to ensure the most frequently used features were accessible from the home screen and menu bar.
Creating the Wireframe
While creating the initial wire frame, I realized I wanted to incorporate both vertical and horizontal scrolls to maximize the amount of information presented to the user while minimizing the amount of steps needed to retrieve it.
Prototypes
As I transitioned from the wireframe to the hi-fi prototype, I felt that the weekly event banners took up too much real estate on the homepage without offering much information to the user. I opted to incorporate a carousel of widgets featuring all of the free applications the library offers. This layout better achieves the goal of drawing awareness to the resources BCPL offers. It also allows the user to personalize their homepage by controlling which widgets appear on the carousel so all their favorite features are just a click away. Additionally, I incorporated a pop-up allowing users to quickly resume viewing or listening to their content right where they left off.
Lessons Learned
The challenge of this project was designing for a large and diverse user group. BCPL's patrons include individuals of all different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. I needed to insure the app's features were equally beneficial to each user sub-group. For example, user flow needed to be simplistic enough to be navigable for less tech-savvy users without being too mundane to keep the more technically literate users engaged.
If I were to revisit this design, I would take account personalization a step further. I would create unique interfaces for different age groups. Tailoring each design to include age-appropriate graphics and features such as, allowing parents to set age restrictions to monitor the content their children are viewing. I would also like to explore an iPad version for kids, offering interactive learning games and digital game boards to track their progress when participating in programs like the Summer Reading Challenge or Battle of the Books.