Overview

Research Guru is a concept app designed for college students who need a more intuitive, accessible way to find and evaluate sources for their papers. Students often do not know how to use the array of online search tools available to them and don't know how to distinguish one source from another. The app helps them think about their search parameters and also generates keywords based on their research question. The advanced search tools are also easy to use. The app doesn't spoon feed results, but instead helps students learn the fundamentals of research.

Process

This project followed the Design Thinking process, beginning with the steps Empathize and Define (Phase 1) and moving through the steps Ideate and Prototype (Phase 2). In this case study, I describe how I came to define a problem statement through my research and then design a prototype that is ready for testing.

Phase 1: Empathize & Define

To understand this problem space, I wanted to validate assumptions that I had going into this project. I wanted to design for both students and teachers. This app would not only help students do research but would also reinforce learning goals that college instructors might set for their students. I interviewed a college instructor as well as former students to pick their brains about their experiences in this area. I also conducted usability studies on library websites and analyzed existing research apps on the market to understand what my designs could do differently.

My Starting Point: Teaching

I worked as a college writing instructor at a community college in the US. Many of my students came to their first semester of college with little exposure to academic research and writing. It was a whole new world to them. I saw that my students avoided using the library search engine to find academic sources, instead relying on Google. They struggled to distinguish academic sources from popular sources, journal articles from blogs.

I realized that my college library’s “search engine”—and most other college library “search engines”— are designed around the idea that users already know how to use those tools. But there are too many options, too many strange words. Students not only struggle to grasp concepts about research, but they struggle to understand the tools colleges are giving them to do research.

Usability Study

I asked two college students to search for sources using the Conestoga College Library and the Northwest Arkansas Community College Library* websites. My reason for doing this was to help me identify user needs and pain points that I could address in my designs.

*The UI of the NWACC Library page has been updated since my project was completed.

Interviews with College Graduates

I interviewed the same two usability study participants about their experiences doing research for humanities courses in college. My notes from the interviews are available here.

Interview with a stakeholder—a college instructor

I interviewed a college writing instructor who teaches at Conestoga College. She and I talked about how she teaches students to do research and what she emphasizes in the process. I shared my ideas about a research app and what services it might provide to students.

Secondary Reading

I read “Assessing the Scope and Feasibility of First-Year Students’ Research Paper Topics” by Erin Rinto, Melissa Bowles-Terry, and Ariel J. Santos, published in College & Research Libraries in 2016, to see how I might design an app rooted in pedagogical theory.

Competitive Research of 6 Existing Apps on the Market

Knowing that academic research apps already exist, I downloaded and explored their user flows and read their reviews on Google Play and the Apple App Store, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. I wanted to know how I might draw from features that work well and improve on designs that seemed not to.

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