Michigan State University Mobile App
Reimagining library access through a first-of-its-kind Big Ten mobile app.
Role
UX Designers
Team
6 UX Designers
Tools
Figma
Miro
UserTesting
Timeline
Aug - Oct 2025
OVERVIEW
What are the Michigan State University Libraries?
The Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries is developing a mobile application for iOS and Android to give patrons a more seamless way to access library services on the go. This will be the first library mobile app within the Big Ten conference!
As part of our undergraduate capstone project, our team conducted UX research to validate and refine the app's feature set, then deliver a comparative analysis of peer library apps, user flow diagrams, and high-fidelity wireframes in Figma. The goal is to provide MSU Libraries' development team with a research-backed, user-centered design foundation ahead of their F26 launch deadline.
PROBLEM
MSU Libraries serves a diverse group of patrons that rely on its services for research, teaching, and learning.
However, many users do not have immediate access to the full range of resources and services the library offers, especially when they are away from a desktop. This can lead to missed updates, challenges locating important information, and difficulties managing checkouts, ultimately limiting users’ ability to fully engage with and benefit from the library’s offerings.
OUR CORE NEED
How might we design a mobile experience that gives MSU library patrons seamless, on-the-go access to their accounts, library resources, and real-time updates, across both iOS and Android?
What kind of app are we building anyway?
Before any sketches or screens, our team prioritized alignment: with our client, each other, and the problem itself. Our first steps were grounded in three foundational artifacts: a project scope document, a project plan, and a broader context report.
Our scope document defined both the boundaries of our work and the objectives driving it. We identified three core goals:
Understand user needs and priorities across MSU's diverse patron base (students, faculty, staff, and Lansing community members).
Design a user-centered, mobile-native experience through wireframes and user flows
Ensure every design decision aligned with accessibility standards, particularly WCAG compliance.
Critically, the scope also drew a clear line around what we were not doing and what was out of scope. We ultimately came to determine the mobile app as a supplement to the physical experience of visiting the libraries, not merely a mobile redesign of the website.
So, what’s the plan?
The project was structured across three sequential phases, each with a defined completion milestone:
Research
December 8, 2025
Design
March 31, 2026
Evaluation
April 15, 2026
The research phase would use user interviews, interview coding, affinity mapping, and comparative analysis to surface user needs and pain points before any design decisions were made. The design phase would follow iterative practices, including rapid sketching, low-fidelity wireframing, high-fidelity mockups, and a fully interactive Figma prototype. Evaluation would then use both moderated and unmoderated usability sessions to evaluate the prototype with real users and gather qualitative and quantitative feedback.
RESEARCH
Desk research
During the first part of the semester, the team reviewed different avenues of desk research to better understand our client and direction for the proposed application. By understanding comparators and current public perceptions of the MSU Libraries, the team is better able to understand the key factors that will make the proposed mobile application stand out within the market – especially since this will be the first app of its kind in the Big Ten Conference.
We evaluated three library apps — Brown University's moBUL, Ex Libris’ Library Mobile App, and Libby — against criteria directly tied to our project’s feature set: ease of login, checkout management, event notifications, floor map navigation, and accessibility. We also drew analogous inspiration from outside the library world: Target’s in-store navigation map (which informed our call number locator concept), the Marriott Bonvoy app’s account management flow, and Netflix’s personalized dashboard as a model for surfacing relevant content to users.
Screening survey
Our team deployed a survey to gather a more comprehensive and holistic view of how MSU community members currently interact with MSU Libraries’ physical and digital services and thus was designed with the goal of identifying the primary user groups and understanding their current library use patterns and pain points.
The survey was created on Qualtrics and included a mix of multiple-choice, Likert-scale, and short-answer questions that covered:
Demographic information
Frequency/purpose of library use (online and in-person)
Device preferences for accessing library resources
Prior experience with library mobile apps
Perceived value of potential mobile app features
Survey results were used to inform how interview questions were framed. The survey was also a recruitment tool for follow-up interviews, which allowed us to select and contact participants willing to share their experiences. A total of 132 responses were collected.
Engagement was high among respondents: 52% reported using library resources daily or multiple times per week, and 85% had used the MSU Libraries website before. The most common reasons for visiting were accessing online articles and databases (71%), borrowing physical materials (47%), finding a quiet place to study (46%), and using printers, computers, or scanners (39%).
While 96% of respondents primarily access the library website via laptop or desktop, 57% also reported using a smartphone despite the website not being optimized for mobile use. Comfort with mobile apps was high across the board, with the majority describing themselves as somewhat or extremely comfortable using mobile applications in everyday life.
When asked to select the most valuable potential mobile app features, respondents prioritized:
Searching the library catalog from a phone (63%)
Viewing checked-out items and due dates (47%)
Managing accounts and renewing books (44%)
Viewing library hours and location details (48%)
Booking or reserving rooms (56%)
These results were notable because room booking, which was not originally a top-listed feature in the client’s initial priority list, emerged as the second most requested feature, which indicated a need to revisit assumptions about what users actually wanted.
Ultimately, the survey allowed the team to identify broad patterns in usage, awareness, and pain points related to the library’s existing tools and services and understand how often users rely on the library website, what tasks they use it for, and also provided context around their expectations for a mobile app.
User interviews & affinity mapping
Our team conducted 14 semi-structured user interviews to understand the deeper motivations, behaviors, and frustrations behind the patterns the survey had surfaced. Participants were recruited directly from survey respondents who indicated willingness to be contacted for follow-up research. Of the 14 participants, 13 were students and 1 was faculty.
Interviews followed a semi-structured format built around three core areas:
Library usage habits and background
Digital navigation experiences on the website
Expectations for a potential mobile app.
By affinity mapping, the team was able to code the gathered quotes into current usage patterns, issues and concerns, and wishes for a mobile application.
User interviews & affinity mapping
Search functionality, room booking, and awareness of services and events came up as the most widespread pain points. Users described the search experience as difficult to navigate, inconsistent, and hard to trust, with several noting they’d turn to Google before the library’s own search when looking for sources. Several participants noted that the friction of the current booking process, which was buried multiple clicks deep in the website, was actively preventing them from using it. Moreover, the library offers far more than most students realize (events, specialized collections, equipment rentals, research consultations, etc.) but these resources are not reaching users.
Physical space usage and item checkout both surfaced as meaningful but less universal needs. Many participants use the library primarily as a study space, and crowding was a recurring frustration. Several noted they’d avoid coming in entirely during busy periods because there was no way to know in advance how packed it would be, with a handful saying a busyness or occupancy indicator in a mobile app would be genuinely useful. For item checkout and account management, participants who do check out books or other resources expressed a desire to handle holds, renewals, and account status in one centralized place, rather than navigating multiple MSU systems to find basic information.
Print services and maps came up less frequently but with friction that was hard to ignore when it did. Some participants mentioned using the library to print materials, treating it as a reliable resource for class-related needs. Others described challenges finding items physically within the building; the layout was called disorienting, with two sides that are easy to confuse and no clear in-building wayfinding once inside. While these didn't rank as top-requested app features, the pain was specific enough that directional support remains worth considering.
So, what are users doing in the library?
Coming soon….
This case study is under construction, but feel free to view our deliverables!
View the final presentation!
View our final prototype!