Project Summary
This 3-month-long individual academic research was conducted using three different methods to investigate how to improve the use of library space to provide students a better study environment without distractions.
Methods
Field Study, Interview, Survey, Thematic Analysis (Affinity Diagram)
Problem
The University of Washington campus hosts thousands of students every day. Libraries are considered as the first preferred space for university students to study, particularly for individual works (Thaler). This means that thousands of students use or have used library spaces on campus to study. While many universities have been trying to bring new changes to library spaces to align with students’ study habits, the most important library quality that students ranked was simply a quiet space (Thaler). This suggests that the core value of library space designs need to be reconsidered from the basics. It is necessary to investigate how we can improve the design of library space to provide students a better study environment.
Field Studies
A total of three observation sessions were conducted, each consisting of approximately 30 minutes at different times of day with the aim of observing a wide range of participants and their behaviors. Data was recorded by taking notes on a laptop device, which was organized by the predetermined areas of focus.
The observations found that students who study in libraries face issues with the overall use of space, frequent food breaks, and inefficient use of big shared tables. In particular, these factors often distracted students from studying, disrupting their work quality and progress.
Interviews
Expanding on the field studies, one-on-one interviews were conducted using the semi-structured approach with three undergraduate students who regularly study in UW libraries at least once a week. Each interview were approximately 30-minute long and all the interviews were recorded and later transcribed for data analysis.
Previous field studies identified frequent food breaks as one of the major issues that students faced while studying in library space. The interviews validated this finding, and further revealed that participants found other inappropriate uses of library space, such as talking and playing video games as distracting. The participants also emphasized the importance of having a personal space when studying in library space and how disruption of their personal spaces distract them from studying.
Surveys
Lastly, I conducted surveys to students with or without regular experiences of studying in libraries in order to validate my findings across a larger population of students.
Solutions
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Have designated areas for individual AND group work within the building while accommodating individual desks with wheels rather than tables for flexibility of space.
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Create a multi-purpose noise-free area for students to minimize distractions that happen tor those who study in libraries, while still providing space for those who wish to use library for talking, playing video games, and other social purposes.
Learnings
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It is crucial to ask users the right questions in the right way.
How questions are selected and framed can have a huge impact on the research finding. In particular, interview questions had to be revised multiple times in order to avoid leading questions or confusing questions that were not obvious to interviewees. I also learned that it is important to carefully choose the types of question to ask in surveys based on the data I wish to gather. -
Have reasons behind how you prioritize the work.
I learned that it is important to effectively prioritize the research findings as a researcher and should be able to explain valid reasons behind why some things need to be prioritized more than the other.