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CSI Piemonte partnered with Experientia to redesign the new digital experience for Turin public libraries: an ecosystem of more that 15 local libraries spread across the Turin area.
Weekly design thinking workshops and co-creation activities with the local libraries team allowed us to gather all the different perspectives of a complex reality diversified among the territory.
3 things to know
One website, more that 15 local libraries
The website of the Turin public libraries (“Biblioteche Civiche Torino”) gathers all the information connected to more that 15 local libraries spread across the territory. Every library has its own audience, events, reading proposals, services and articles. Library directors highlighted the importance of each library: every user sticks to his neighborhood library rather than being a frequent visitor to all libraries. For this reason, creating sub-homepages for each library was important to support users in their usual behavior using the service.
Design thinking workshops
Design thinking methodology was applied in order to achieve a final website that was cohesive and could meet all the different needs among the complex and diversified contexts of the territory. Weekly meetings with the librarys’ selected tea allowed a step by step approach and the possibility to validate each part of the website with the stakeholder in charge of that service: events, programs and projects, children section, historical and local collections.
A piece of an ecosystem
The website is a part of a complex ecosystem composed of a catalog online and a digital lending platform. The two services (catalog and digital lending) are not located within the Turin public library website but instead in different domains. These three platforms have to recall each other’s contents and give the perception of a solid ecosystem. Information architecture methodology and content organization were necessary in order not to lose any pieces during product integrations.
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Context
The Turin Public library website had to be updated in terms of information architecture and prioritization of informations, as well as visual presence and new look and feel. The portal is the final stage of the “Rethinking Turin Civic Libraries” project, launched in 2019 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Central Civic Library and supported by Intesa Sanpaolo.
Research
An extensive desk research allowed the team to spot best practices and common design patterns used by the most important library websites. A detailed content audit was necessary to be sure that each information of the “old” website would have been revised during the redesign. Weekly meetings with stakeholders and two specific workshops (directors of local libraries and kids&teens audience) were the key stages to came out with important insights that led the design choices.
Design
The redesign of the website was supported by information architecture and wireframes activities. The responsive website is designed with a mobile first approach and uses common design patterns, usability rules and accessibility.
See here for the final outcome of the project.
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