‘I don’t know the hierarchy’

Using UX to position literacy development resources where students expect them

Abstract

The provision of online resources for tertiary student literacy development outside of students’ curricular contexts is problematic because engagement with centralised support provisions is low. As part of a Library team focused on student literacy development across our university, we have conducted multiple rounds of user experience (UX) testing with our students to design a set of resources in a course within our learning management system that all students can access. Our most recent UX employed usability testing, card sorting, and low-fi wire framing activities to identify how students experience our resources. Findings indicate that students are confused by enforced groupings of literacy development content and that they expect our resources to be accessible with the rest of their assessment information. Implications for design include balancing student expectations of immediate access to relevant literacy development resources with the constraints of having a small team who can design this content.