Improving the findability of information on the UT library website from a UX lens.

The project focuses on improving the findability of the global navigation menu on the UT library website. My research aims to understand howpeople are expected to find information on the UT library webpage. I focus on conducting user research to provide better global and local navigation design solutions. The goal is to understand how website visitors categorize and prioritize information so that the navigation and organization of the UTL website can be improved. I aim to construct an information architecture that facilitates self-intuitive and navigable information. Additionally, I am testing the landing page to optimize the findability of content n the library website and improve user experience. I am working in collaboration with the UX CFT which is a cross-functional team of library staff members from various departments of UTL. The user research methodology used for this project is hybrid-Card sorting. The software used for it is Optimal Workshop software. The study is unmoderated where the participants will be asked to sort the existing global navigation menu and sub-menu items into categories they want based on their intuition or the categories they are provided with. I will evaluate the usability and user experience of the UTL website by analyzing the results of the card-sorting study and providing a recommendation for making changes to our website navigation and organization based on the study findings. My research revealed that UTL's current navigation menu arrangement is not entirely understandable to students. It appears that students have been trying to sort the subitems of the global menu based on similarity with familiar words when navigating the website. Therefore, the global menu hierarchy needs to be more self-intuitive. This would require redesigning the navigation menu and conducting further analysis.