Process Highlight

Challenge and responsibilities

Problem

Users felt lost and uncertain about how to engage with the platform

Imagine having access to over 32,000 research papers, datasets, and academic treasures—but feeling completely lost every time you try to find or contribute to this wealth of knowledge. This was the pain point of thousands of researchers, librarians, and students using MINDS@UW, the University of Wisconsin's institutional repository.

Before

Solution

A comprehensive academic discovery ecosystem

Analytics for Institutional Impact

Overview

MINDS@UW is a research repository, where thousands of researchers preserve their academic work

It holds groundbreaking datasets, doctoral dissertations, and research papers—discoveries that could change the world, stored across 10+ University of Wisconsin campuses and trusted to be discoverable when the academic community needs them most: during late-night research sessions, grant proposals, and breakthrough moments.

Insights to Strategy

Clear CTAs, inclusive representation and communication regarding closed collections could transform MINDS

Thinking and strategizing at a systems level was the way to move ahead. I had a wall full of ideas, but not all of them could move forward. I started connecting dots between what users needed most and what was technically possible.

Some things were obvious, like improving how users browse or making submissions easier with clear CTAs. Others needed deeper thinking: how do we highlight the value each UW campus brings, or fix the long-standing confusion around closed collections?

Collaborative Wins

• Worked with engineers to assess technical feasibility.
• Reframed analytics dashboard as a separate hosted service.

Final Designs

A simple, inclusive and research-focussed platform

The new design focused on making the experience simple and user friendly. I focussed on fixing issues that users most persistently faced. This included providing clear CTAs for most frequently done actions, reducing confusion through clear communication, designing an analytics dashboard to highlight the institution's impact and making analysis and reporting easier and faster.

Celebrating diversity within a shared pursuit of knowledge

The new design connects diverse UW campuses through a consistent visual framework, celebrating each university's role in advancing research and promoting shared access to knowledge.''

Measuring what matters

Behind every number is a story, a researcher's discovery, a librarian's effort, a reader's curiosity. The analytics dashboard transforms those data points into a shared picture of growth, collaboration, and impact.

Accessibility

Designing for everyone

A critical requirement for the libraries is accessibility. I used tools like the BrowserStack Accessibility Toolkit to actively test my design against WCAG standards. This allowed me to validate key areas, from ensuring high-contrast text to simulating how the design would look for users with various forms of color blindness. This testing process was crucial for building an inclusive foundation and ensuring the platform is usable by the widest possible audience in academia.

Learnings

What were my takeaways?

This project provided valuable insights into user-centered design and the importance of addressing both functional and emotional needs of users. Through the redesign of MINDS@UW, I learned the following key lessons:

• The Power of Clear Navigation and CTAs: Prominent, well-placed calls to action (CTAs), such as "Make a Deposit" and "Browse Communities", significantly enhance usability by guiding users toward their main tasks and reducing confusion.
• User Education Enhances Engagement: Providing clear, concise guidance, like the "How to Deposit" and "Benefits" sections, empowers users, builds trust, and reduces frustration by helping them understand how to use the platform effectively.
• User Feedback Drives Design Decisions: Iterative design, based on direct user feedback, was essential in addressing pain points such as navigation difficulty and lack of visibility for other UW schools' contributions, resulting in a more intuitive and inclusive experience.