EthnoMed, a web-based resource for healthcare providers to learn medical and cultural information about immigrants and refugees, has been struggling with its poor user experience. By identifying target user groups, digging into users’ pain points with extensive user research, crafting and iterating the website based on users’ feedback, Team Infothusiast came up with a refreshed design - EthnoMed 2.0. The new design not only brings a new look and feel to the site, but also improves the site’s information architecture and navigation, allowing providers to find information easily and quickly, thus attracting and retaining more users to the website.

You learn to call 911 in the event of an emergency, but what comes next? Our project aims to educate the public on how, and when to call 911. This includes getting the caller and the call receiver on the same page. Our solution is the creation of a virtual tool to document emergency incidents consistently. Having a standard incident form allows callers to be aware of what information is required by 911 for fast help. In an emergency, the caller is the real 'first responder', and with proper training you can be the difference between life or death!

The media collections of the Macalester College Library are organized in a less than optimal way, particularly the film collection, which is fragmented into nearly indistinguishable collections, which do not lend themselves well to patron engagement. As such, an organizational plan was constructed for these collections, synthesized from a literature review, observations taken at similar institutions, and a patron survey aimed at discovering the ways in which patrons wish to utilize media. The proposal called for a reorganizing of collections and the creation of a dedicated media space in order to better help the library to best meet those wishes.

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) recently implemented their first digital asset management (DAM) solution. They originally sought to implement a system that would improve the administration of their digital media across all departments. Our work realized the limitations of the purchased software as well as the DAM’s unidentified scope and purpose which would not support the various use cases across the institution’s departments. This presented an opportunity to take the lessons learned and evolve them into a cohesive assessment. We further developed our recommendations into an iterative model that integrates SAM’s needs and organizational culture for their future DAM success.

We reimagined how a dollar can generate data. The Food Access Partnership on Vashon Island distributes cash to the community to minimize costs of locally grown food, but the paper currency they create and distribute suffers from low redemption rates. Improving this system, our solution provides real time data for partnering nonprofits and farmers while preserving the familiar paper “Farm Buck.” Now, our stakeholders can track Farm Bucks through the system and encourage users to redeem them at farmer’s markets and farm stands. Placing data in the hands of organizers, we’re helping Vashon Islanders address food equity in their community.

As Washington Trails Association’s (WTA) hiking guides and user-submitted trip reports are mostly created by those who have been a part of the outdoor community for a long time, there is often a natural and unconscious bias imbedded within the information resource. This project helped WTA gain insights on how they can effectively design a content standard for their user-generated Trip Reports so that in turn, the system can be more inclusive, empowering, collaborative, and accessible. Some proposed solutions were to incorporate enhanced search capabilities of trip reports, trip reporter identifiers, and a revised trip reporting framework for quick reporting.

Being able to browse print collections is an important step to discovering information. This project explores the impact of using virtual bookshelves at ASU Library to create a browsing experience for those not in physical library spaces. The Library’s development team has agreed to redesign an existing virtual bookshelf application to meet the goals of this project. This project identifies communities to share this tool with and outlines a specification document to aid the development team in their redesign. This application will allow the Library to build partnerships across campus and provide opportunities to browse and discover information.

Missoula Public Library in Missoula, MT is building a new library website for 2020. Our capstone team sought to better understand the content, context, and users of the library’s website to improve the information architecture. We restructured the global navigation to have a topical organization scheme and eliminated ambiguous terms. We also developed a written report with a summary of our research, recommended information architecture, best practices going forward, and curated data for future analyses. The result being a "digital branch" that builds community, enhances library services, and saves the time of the user.

Literacy Source is an educational non-profit in Lake City that offers classes in English for speakers of other languages and adult based education to low-income adults. Though they have a Reading Library with many great materials for students and tutors, circulation is low. We worked with Literacy Source and the various users of the Reading Library to gather data and perspectives, leading to a re-design of the space. As a result of more concrete leveling criteria, re-organizing the ways books are shelved, and inclusive signage, users are now able to more easily browse the library space independently.

We worked with the National Park’s NAGRPA staff to index specific issues, tribes, or institutions within the Review Committee minutes. The project created a thesaurus introduction and tagged institutions that update the Review Committee, as well as provided the reason (i.e. request for disposition, request for finding of fact/dispute, presentation, or public/written comment). Our project enables NAGPRA staff to search the minutes for specific issues they encounter regularly, and provides them a more comprehensive view of current needs. It will thus enable visibility of indigenous issues and make them more accessible, transparent, and useful to NAGPRA.