Introducing the Design Thinking for Services Lab

The Design Thinking for Library Services Lab will engage in research projects aimed at developing better services that address solutions for complex library problems. This will include applying the iterative processes of problem definition, brainstorming, researching, prototyping, and feedback to the current and future challenges of redesigning library services to meet the emerging needs of learners and scholars. This lab will develop online and physical prototypes of new services through engagement with users and library stakeholders in participatory design activities and will explore collaborative, team-based approaches to service innovation. We will also leverage the work already being done by the creators of the Design Thinking for Libraries Toolkit (http://designthinkingforlibraries.com/).


Year 1 Project: Research Scholars Hub

Our Year 1 Cohort engaged in the following design challenge:

Graduate student researchers can often be found dedicating long hours to their research, from reviewing primary data sources to writing a thesis and meeting with their faculty advisors. They conduct these activities in their offices, homes, or sometimes, the library. How might a library space dedicated to graduate student researchers enrich their scholarship?

The Lab collaborated with the Library’s Service Design Task Force to apply design thinking to this design challenge and move through the service design process to prototype the idea of a Research Scholars Hub, starting with a deep dive into the graduate student experience on campus that included interviews, user journey mapping, and persona development.

The Lab used strategies provided by brightspot strategy as well as strategies included in Design Thinking for Libraries from the Gates Foundation and IDEO and the Service Innovation Handbook by Lucy Kimbell. At the end of the year, the Lab produced several ideas for a services and spaces designed for graduate students that have been incorporated into ongoing service design work in the Library.

Year 1 Lab Members:

Benjamin Rearick

School of Information Graduate Student

Heather Shoecraft

School of Information Graduate Student

Nerea Llamas

Interim Associate University Librarian for Research

Meghan Sitar

Director of Connected Scholarship, Learning and Teaching

Justin Schell

Director of Shapiro Design Lab, Learning and Teaching


Year 2 Project: Library Lifecycle

The Library Lifecycle project aims to facilitate the Library’s adoption of user-centered practices by creating a toolkit containing a series of human-centered artifacts, with associated instructions on use, representing the students, faculty, staff that make up our diverse community of library users and partners. The Year 2 Cohort is continuing work started by the initial Library Lifecycle group in Phase 1 of the project.  To build on the research conducted, the prototypes created and the vision imagined by the team in Phase 1, the Year 2 Cohort will iterate upon the initial prototype by applying service design methods and testing a higher fidelity prototype with library staff to develop a user experience empathy-building activity as part of a broader Service Design Toolkit. In the second semester of the project, the students will take their activity into service design work in the Shapiro Design Lab, which, in its third year, is seeking to better understand user needs and opportunities for redesigning its services.

Year 2 Lab Members:

Jordan Gorzalski

School of Information Graduate Student

Sophia McFadden-Keesling

School of Information Graduate Student

Caroline Wack

School of Information Graduate Student

Laurie Alexander

Associate University Librarian for Learning and Teaching

Meghan Sitar

Director of Connected Scholarship, Learning and Teaching

Justin Schell

Director of Shapiro Design Lab, Learning and Teaching

Library Lifecycle Project Facilitators

Denise Leyton

Strategic Projects Coordinator in Library Environments, Operations

Emily Puckett Rodgers

Head of Library Environments, Operations


Year 3 Lab Members:

Emma De Vera

School of Information Graduate Student

Joshua Cutter

School of Information Graduate Student

Mary Shelly

School of Information Graduate Student

Vincent Qiu

School of Information Graduate Student
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