Website Redesign

The West-Brabant Library is a public library that focuses on education and making knowledge accessible to the general public. During my studies at the HZ University of Applied Sciences,
I completed an internship there. During this period, I was in contact with the organization, because I often studied there and worked closely with the management.

During my internship, I was assigned the task of making the library’s website more dynamic and user-friendly. The websites of the branches in cities, Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal had recently been merged, including their digital environments. This fusion resulted in missing functionalities and reduced usability. 

My research focused on the issues when users using the newly merged website. It revealed that the website was static and lacked interactive features, such as a chat function for direct communication. In addition, many pages were poorly structured and lacked user interface elements such as clear icons, concise text, and a logical structure especially the Q&A page.

Based on these insights, I provided recommendations for redesigning the website. The focus was on creating a dynamic user experience and implementing a chat feature, allowing visitors to easily ask questions or report issues. This marked an important shift from traditional customer support to a future-proof, digital form of service. I developed an proposal report focused on expectation management within the organization. Employees needed to be prepared and trained to effectively work with this new approach to customer interaction.

For the execution of the project, I applied an agile methodology. I started with an analysis phase, during which I did interviews with peoples within the library. The insights gained were translated into concrete requirements, which were refined based on feedback from the employers at the Library. Based on these requirements, I created a backlog that I continuously updated throughout the project.
I then developed both low and high-fidelity designs to validate whether the requirements were met within the Scrum framework.

The final result aligned with both the library expectations and the needs of the end users.
The website was transformed from a static platform into a dynamic and future proof digital environment. This resulted in a significant improvement in usability and accessibility. Visitors were able to find information more quickly and easily, leading to higher user satisfaction and reduced frustration. The introduction of the chat functionality also had a direct impact on communication between the library and its users.