The Chicago Public Library Overview

Spark, a mobile application, was designed to connect the Chicagoland community with events and resources provided by the The Chicago Public Library.

Libraries bring together diverse populations and provide unique access to a variety of activities. Rather than fading in the age of the internet and digital media, libraries are taking on an even stronger role in community life.

I led the design initiative with my team in conducting user interviews and played a key role in facilitating its design.

This was a project through the Designation immersive program. A rewarding and challenging one.

Role: UX/UI Design,

Platform: Mobile

Timeline: 6 Weeks

Tools: Axure, Sketch

Research

We started contacting CPL (Chicago Public Library) branch managers from various libraries across Chicago. Interviewing led to gaining insight into the library culture. Libraries have events, workshops, and classes for their communities. Individual users from the community who have used the library were also contacted. Many of the library patrons who we interviewed happened to be educators.

What We Learned

  • Libraries play an increasingly strong role in promoting digital literacy.

  • Despite a growing demand, there is a disconnect that exists between services offered and public awareness.

  • Personalized learning is being implemented in CPS Schools.

“3 out of 4 Chicago schools don’t have instructional support for technology to teach digital literacy”

— Chicago Public Schools

“Over 80% of school libraries at Chicago Public School closed, meaning teachers have to find resources for their students elsewhere”

— Chicago Public Schools

“Only 1 in 4 CPS schools has a certified librarian helping kids succeed”

— Chicago Public Schools

 
 

Teachers, the New Librarians.

Further research led to an interesting insight. The number of available librarians at Chicago Public Schools has been dwindling for years. With a shortage of librarians, teachers had to shift their roles to also become librarians for their students.

 
 

Teachers became our target audience. We shifted our research towards teachers and focused on their past experiences using libraries. Teachers used libraries to find resources for themselves, but mostly to find resources for their students.

Interestingly, Chicago was in the process of testing out Proficiency based learning. Proficiency based learning gives students objectives and targets which have to be met before the student can move forward in the learning process. Educators supply resources for students to choose their own learning path.

Problem Statement

Teachers need an efficient way to supply their students with a sense of learning beyond the classroom, due to a lack of library resources within the CPS system.

Sparking Interest

We decided to name our product "Spark", because we wanted to provide a tool to aid teachers in sparking the interests of young minds. Functionality would include saving library events and relevant resources to allow the capability to easily share resources amongst teachers and their students. Sharing resources with their students digitally, was important for teachers, who had a need to expand their curriculum.

Key Features

  • Provide filtered search options to reduce friction.

  • Optimize search results based on geo-location.

  • Allowing users to “Spark” events and resources into interest boards.

  • Achieve understanding of application through user onboarding.

Ideation + Wireframes

Solution + Final Product

 

Final Thoughts

This project was a great time to work on. I learned that conducting thorough and continuous research helped open doors to a solution. It was also exciting to have an aha moment! As a team we were proud of our work and happy to create a digitally inclusive community for the library. This was a fun and collaborative project, which I was lucky to be a part of. I feel that “Spark”, could truly be a great product if implemented for The Chicago Public Library, and could assist educators if proficiency based learning were to be adopted throughout the city. “Spark”, has the potential to engage the minds of young individuals to help shape their own learning path.