New approaches to improving the student experience at Aberystwyth University libraries: From library surveys to cognitive mapping

Purpose: The findings are based on experience at Aberystwyth Universities libraries using surveys and user experience (UX) activities to identify and understand user requirements. Design/methodology/approach: This paper was initially conceived and developed as a presentation for the LibPMC Conference in July 2023. It is included in this special conference issue for this conference. 

Findings: There are challenges to successful integration of UX into user engagement processes across the library and IT services. To improve shared analysis and collaborative ideas generation we developed an interactive data dashboard. 

Originality/value: The research is based on practical approaches to improving our understanding of student use and requirements at Aberystwyth University libraries. It explores mechanisms used to collect findings from all areas of UX, including library surveys, focus groups and UX activities to be able to analyse and share all student experience data – to be able to analyse themes and generate ideas and actions for development.