Designing, testing, and building a discovery interface for campus study spaces

Project background & constraints

The library website team had a goal to create a study space finder since their site redesign launched in 2020. The site was built with a Drupal CMS, and as a result, we had significant data- and template-related constraints to work within.

We started by assessing user needs and evaluating comparable sites from other universities.

Our desire to have an interactive study space finder was not a unique one - many other university libraries had implemented some version of this idea, so we looked to those examples for inspiration for our own. We interviewed 15 students and asked them to look at the study space finders for libraries at Duke, Cambridge, NYU, and UT Austin. We learned what aspects of spaces were most important to students, parts of the interfaces they liked and disliked, and started designing!

I tested prototypes of the space finder with students twice — once in 2023, and again in 2025. Here are some highlights of what I learned.

1. Students trust images way more than words.

As a result, we prioritized taking new photos that better reflected the light, size, seating styles, and features in spaces. In the future, we may be able to add more than one photo to each space’s page.

2. The descriptions of noise levels were quite difficult to get right.

We tested different terms for noise levels twice, and got it wrong twice. Descriptions of noise turned out to be quite subjective, especially in the context of a library building.

3. Some features, while desirable, were hard to define. We realized simple is better.

Some features sounded great in theory, but were hard to implement. We made the choice to simplify our list of features, recognizing that this tool isn’t the only way to find a study space. It’s a guide, and some things have to be discovered in other ways, like by viewing other space-related pages on our site or just going to a space and seeing what’s there.

Let's dive into the details of the designs!

These are some of the most impactful design decisions we made throughout the whole process.

1. We did a full redesign of all the space details pages to better showcase desired features and characteristics, and to aid in navigation.

2. We moved the “bookable space” filter from its standalone placement to the features group due to usability testing behavior and one participant's suggestion that made us say, “why didn’t we think of this?”

3. We made the tough decision to not display building hours on the Find a Study Space page due to space constraints.

We did our first round of testing in 2023 with the following designs.

Study space finder design showing features of spaces, locations and hours, and noise levels. Users can filter by building, noise level, and feature.

A re-imagining of the space details page template, showing the noise level, features, hours, and location for a specific space.

And now, the mockups we sent to development in 2025 (plus my annotations).

This mockup showcases a decision we made during development to display the active filters above the results panel rather than above the filters panel to aid in visibility.

The mockup above shows the desktop and mobile designs for the space details page, along with annotations for Josh, our front-end developer.

the mockup above shows our no results easter egg — a regular practice we have of sharing illustrations from our library collections as a consolation prize when a user finds themselves with no results for a search or filter.

After spending months in Figma-land, we implemented and tested a coded prototype, complete with the best filter interactions I've ever used.

I created specs and reviewed development incrementally. We held multiple design reviews during both the mockup and implementation phases with myself, the front-end developer, and the project manager/content strategist. As issues came up, we’d rethink designs together and make it happen. And, as mentioned, our developer implemented our long-researched vision for filter interactions flawlessly.

And then, Find a Study Space was released into the world!

It received over 400 views in the week after its release, and views of our most popular space pages increased by over 200% compared to the year prior. Take a look at the final product, built in a Drupal CMS.

Lessons learned

• It’s okay to get it wrong. That’s why we test early and often!

• Sometimes aspects of a design need improvement, but we’re too close to the project to notice.

• Having a team that is open to changing their minds and grounded in reality is invaluable.

• Design systems rock.

• The version I designed in 2023 vs the final product showcases how much growth I've had in the past three years — from my first few months on the job to now! The best way to become a better designer is by doing it, making mistakes, and doing a better job the next time.