A digital branch for an iconic library

The legendary architecture and design that make the Seattle Public Library’s central branch a standout cultural landmark also reflects the institution’s role as a community cornerstone. SPL patrons care deeply about their iconic library: it’s a vibrant place to connect, learn, discover, and create. And Seattle citizens had made their voices heard. They wanted the Library to improve its online services and upgrade the dated website.

Partnering with SPL, it quickly became apparent that we were dealing with more than a “website.” With more visits a year than all 28 branches combined, the online gateway to the Library is truly a digital branch. And yet, the website hadn’t been redesigned in over a decade, and it wasn’t responsive on mobile devices. It was time for a digital project worthy of the Library’s passionate community and legendary design heritage.

We set out with the shared goal of bringing a world-class standard of digital service to the online experience in a process that welcomed the community into the project; it was essential that this project be wholeheartedly transparent and people-centric. This meant embracing community listening in a robust way. In every phase, the SPL and Domain7 teams found ways to invite input from Seattle residents, conducting numerous public surveys, interviews, and focus groups. The SPL team created a detailed public-facing project page that kept patrons updated on the status of the project, shared community feedback, and provided ways for individuals to speak into the site’s creation on an ongoing basis. SPL included a “race and social justice initiative” outcome in the project goals, and we ensured that together we reached out to underrepresented communities and individuals to ensure we were hearing from a truly diverse range of voices.

The rich insights we received from patrons informed the design process as we went, creating a more sharply relevant experience at each level of design. The open process avoided any big reveals or surprises, keeping the community informed as to what the site would look and feel like post-launch. The reaction was overwhelmingly warm and engaged, with patrons taking to social media to applaud the participatory process—many characterized the project as an example for community organizations to embrace. Post-launch, the SPL team continues to listen closely to their community as needs change, finding ways to respond meaningfully.

“We make it difficult; it doesn’t have to be,” an SPL team member told us early in project discovery. Just like a bricks-and-mortar branch, the digital space needed to provide truly welcoming service while making it easy to find programs and resources. The original site reflected the complex structure of a robust municipal library with multiple branches: there were many, many layers of navigation, a huge array of pages, and complex steps needed to achieve simple goals such as booking a meeting room. We reassessed each process and navigation task from the viewpoint of the patron, implementing user-centric design to achieve what SPL called “radical simplification.”

We also needed to consider community and discovery. In a physical branch, Seattle patrons felt connected to their neighbourhood, and often they would discover programs or resources they didn’t know they were looking for. As we designed the online experience, we looked for ways to communicate and unleash that transformative power of libraries to help people connect, discover, and grow. Search results were expanded to include a range of discovery across the catalogue and website. Relevant events and recommendations were incorporated in carefully considered ways, and previously-hidden resources and programs were showcased. The new site has demonstrated increased traffic into new areas of the site, with users going beyond simply searching the catalogue to discover the fuller breadth of SPL experiences.

With so much rich information and a diverse and growing community, SPL needed to be able to adjust digitally as needs continued to become known. We reimagined the Library’s digital space as more than a static repository of information, planning intentionally for change and iterative improvements. Using responsive UI components to power the entire site created a seamless and flexible bridge between design and development. This approach pays off long after launch, contributing to design integrity and increased agility as the site necessarily flexes over time.

Alongside building for technical and design resilience, we wanted to equip the Library’s team to confidently steward their digital property. Building capacity in the Library’s internal team set them up for future success, and ensured they weren’t solely reliant on external agencies after we launched the site. An empowering institution deserves an empowering project.