User Participation Lab
What is the User Participation Lab?
The User Participation Lab is our hub for collaborating with our diverse community of library users. Our goal is to involve students, faculty, and visitors in the testing and design of Western Libraries’ services and spaces. Talking to you about your experiences helps us ensure that the libraries are useful, accessible, and user-friendly for all.
Get involved
Make your voice heard by joining the User Participation Lab. When you join we’ll notify you of new opportunities to provide us with your feedback and test our services and spaces.
We encourage users at all levels of ability and familiarity with the library to apply. Having a broader range of perspectives will help us ensure that our services work for all users.
Current projects
In Fall 2023, we'll be reaching out to users to get feedback on and to compare the effectiveness of some new designs for the library locations pages, as well as information on study spaces available within the libraries.
Contact us if you are interested in participating.
Lab results
You've already taught us a lot about how you use our libraries. Check out our findings from our past user testing sessions.
- May 2022: Weldon Renovated Space Assessment Report
- April 2021: Assessment of HathiTrust's Emergency Temporary Access Service
- Dec. 2020: Website Accessibility Testing
- Nov. 2020: Western Libraries Modified Service Survey Report
The UX Café is a pop-up library event where library users provide feedback on various library services and tools. The feedback we collect in these testing sessions guides us in making quick and impactful changes to the libraries.
- March 30, 2023: UX Café Report Website Testing
- March 10, 2020: Citation Strategies
- March 10, 2020: Using a Password in Omni 2
- Feb. 25, 2020: Learning About Campus Events
- Feb. 18 and 25, 2020: Using a Password in Omni
- Feb. 18, 2020: Locating Omni