Digital Scholarship
Role
UX Design Intern working with a UX designer and mapping specialist
Task
Conduct research to inform a redesign of the Digital Scholarship site prioritizing attracting new users
Skills
Technical Skills: Figma, Adobe Suite, Microsoft Forms
UX Skills: User Interview, Survey Writing, Iterative Designing, Affinity Mapping
Timeline
June 2025 - August 2025
Overview
What is Digital Scholarship?
Digital Scholarship is a department within the University of Rochester Library that primarily manages web hosting for the university, as well as working with students and faculty on Digital Humanities projects.
The Problem
Digital Scholarship isn't attracting new users
Digital Scholarship offers their services to anyone affiliated with the University, but they have been seeing declining numbers in users. Additionally, current users weren't always aware of the score of what DS could offer, and would either take on work they didn't have the technical skills to accomplish, or would become overly reliant on DS to run their projects.
The Solution
Find out why new users aren't coming, and make Digital Scholarship services more accessible for current users
To properly address DS's pain points, I had to conduct research on current, former, and potential users to learn more about their experience with the platform. Using their feedback, I could design a new site that better addressed their needs and lighted the departments workload when it came to onboarding future users.
Getting Started
Familiarizing myself with the site
I started the project by familiarizing myself with Digital Scholarship's current site layout. I took note of what information the site provided, and did my best to set a my own account without asking the team for help.
Original Site
Research
Exploring other Reclaim Hosting sites
The Digital Scholar site is managed by Reclaim Hosting, who provides web hosting services for universities across the country. Before I started the redesign, I explored other universities' Reclaim hosted sites to see what content they included. While reviewing, I created a competitive analysis matrix for my managers to start a conversation on how we should approach the redesign.
Competitive Analysis Matrix
Next I conducted interviews with current and potential faculty users
To properly address DS's pain points, I had to conduct research on current and potential users to learn more about their experience with the platform. Using their feedback, I could design a new site that better addressed their needs and lighted the departments workload when it came to onboarding future users.
I also created a survey to figure out how students use Digital Scholarship
Since this project took place over the summer, it was harder to get in touch with students to interview. Instead, I created a survey using Microsoft Forms to get a sense of how many students were aware of Digital Scholarship, and if they had used it, how their experience was.
Findings
Experienced Faculty
One of the biggest findings from the interviews was that most faculty members had students use Digital Scholar to create the site or database for them. After the site was created, they tended to feel comfortable maintaining it themselves, but were worried about breaking something.
Inexperienced Faculty
When talking with faculty that could benefit from Digital Scholar, we learned that many of them had been paying for similar services out of pocket. The most common reason they hadn't used Digital Scholar was because they weren't aware it existed, weren't sure how to get in contact to create an account, or didn't feel confident in their abilities to create a website.
Student Survey
We collected 80+ responses from students. Most responses showed that students weren't aware of Digital Scholar services but could find substantial use for them. Of the students that had used Digital Scholar, most reported being confused by the set up process, but had a positive experience once their accounts were active.
Affinity Mapping
Personas
Information Architecture
To start the redesign of Digital Scholar's site, I planned what pages would be featured, and how they could be structured to best serve users' needs. I considered how other Reclaim Hosting sites were organized using what I learned from the competitive analysis matrix, and focused on highlighting content with each persona in mind.
Wireframes
Using the information architecture I created wireframes for the site that combined similar pages, and created more consistent layouts across pages to make the site more intuitive. I also focused on ensuring key information about Digital Scholarship would be visible from the Landing Page.
Workflows
High Fidelity Prototype
With the wireframes complete, I met with my team to review my work. I received feedback on how to clean up spacing and design details that I applied to the final prototype.