The Wikipedia Library/Design improvements

This page provides an overview of The Wikipedia Library team's Q3/4 20/21 project to improve the user experience of certain high-priority workflows on the Library Card platform.

We would love to hear your thoughts on the design and experience of using the Library Card platform. Please share these on the talk page.

Background
The Library Card platform (https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/) facilitates access to The Wikipedia Library's holdings provided through partnerships with a wide variety of organisations. The tool currently has three primary user workflows:


 * 1) Accessing content
 * Users make use of EZProxy-based authentication to access content for which they are authorized
 * 1) Applying for authorizations
 * Some content requires users to file an application before gaining authorization. Users need to file applications, track their status, and respond to questions.
 * 1) Coordinating applications
 * Some users are coordinators (including Wikipedia Library staff), who review and take decisions on filed applications.

We have identified accessing content as the highest priority workflow. With more and more of the library's content becoming available through the automatically-authorized Library Bundle, we will prioritize design changes which facilitate direct access to content the user is already authorized for, as eligible editors will be automatically authorized for more than half the library's content without requiring an application. Applying for authorizations is still important for many users, however, so we will keep this in mind as we evaluate potential work. While Coordinating applications is a key component to providing access to all of the library's content, the relevant workflows are undertaken by less than a dozen users. Those users are provided with specific training and direct support, and most coordination is carried out by members of the Wikipedia Library staff team. As such, we identify it as the lowest priority workflow for improvement.

1) Logged out
For a logged out user, the Library Card platform homepage currently looks like this:



Ideally users should first log in, via Wikipedia, to learn if they meet the eligibility criteria and to check out their authorized content.

2) Logged in
Once logged in, the homepage updates and shows the current user's Library Bundle eligibility status. The Log in button updates to My Library:



3) My Library
To access content, users can now click My Library to view the content for which they are authorized:



For all Library Bundle content, a logo is present in the corner of the tile. The first tab, Instant access, lists items which users can access immediately by clicking Access Collection. This takes them through the proxy to the publisher's website where they will be able to browse and access resources. The second tab, Individual access, lists publishers for which this is not the case. Individual logins or access codes will have been required to access that content.

This section comes with the caveat that while this is the current primary means to gain access to publisher content, we will be highlighting searching as the primary workflow once integrated. While My Library can be reworked largely agnostically to this feature, we need to consider it when redesigning the homepage. Despite the addition of search, using My Library is still an important workflow. Some content won't be indexed in the search tool, and users may still want to use a publisher's own website to utilise certain specific features.

Identified areas for improvement
This section is based partially on our own experiences and intuition, and partly on user feedback. If you think something is missing please let us know on the talk page.

1) Logged out

 * It's not obvious that 'Log in' means 'Log in via Wikimedia OAuth'
 * Logging in is not presented as a near-required action
 * We only highlight publishers which require an application, Bundle publishers are hidden and not easily accessible.
 * There is very little text explaining what The Wikipedia Library is and why a user might want to use it

2) Logged in

 * Issues with identifying publishers/Bundle content remain
 * My Library is not very clearly highlighted as the means to get to content

3) My Library

 * No descriptions are present in the collection tiles, unlike on the Browse/Apply page. For a user unfamiliar with a publisher, no context is provided on their content.
 * The Instant/Individual access distinction is confusing
 * It's not obvious what the Library Bundle icon is

We want to improve this Homepage -> My Library -> Publisher access workflow by making improvements to both the homepage and My Library interfaces.

My Library
We have the following goals for the My Library page:


 * Allow users to more easily find and access collections of interest to them
 * Improve the ability to filter and search through available collections
 * Provide a more direct line from this page to the new partner suggestion page

Homepage
We expect to start work on the homepage in February 2021.

In the meantime we'd love to hear your thoughts on the current design. What's clear and unclear about it for new users? Do the sections above capture your thoughts on its problems, or are we missing something?

Updates
Week starting...

11th January 2021

 * We finished this project page!
 * My Library mockups are being refined. They will be posted here when ready.