AASL Standards Portal

AASL Standards Portal

Get Started with Standards

PROCESS HIGHLIGHTS

Design challenge and responsibilities overview

Design challenge and responsibilities overview

Challenge

Capstone Project: tackling a real-world design problem that required balancing user needs with organizational goals.

Capstone Project: tackling a real-world design problem that required balancing user needs with organizational goals.

Capstone Project: tackling a real-world design problem that required balancing user needs with organizational goals.

Opportunity

Collaborated with the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) to redesign their Standards Portal for greater usability and accessibility.

Collaborated with the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) to redesign their Standards Portal for greater usability and accessibility.

Collaborated with the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) to redesign their Standards Portal for greater usability and accessibility.

Timeline

Aug 2024 - May 2025

Disciplines

User Experience Research

User Interface Design

Team

Nate Bennett

Feier Su

Maya Sundaresan

Camille Zuidema

Tools

Figma

Figma Jam

Google Docs

The Process

1

Discover

Discover

Identify Problem

Identify Problem

Research Phase

Research Phase

2

Ideation

Ideation

Brainstorm Seesion

Brainstorm Seesion

Mid-Fidelity

Mid-Fidelity

3

Final Design

Final Design

Design System

Design System

Making it Great

Making it Great

Final Prototype

Final Prototype

4

Evaluation

Evaluation

Impact

Impact

Next Step

Next Step

Discover

Identify Problem

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) provides resources for school librarians through its Standards Portal. However, the portal is underutilized due to poor navigation, lack of personalization, and insufficient support for different stages of learning and implementation.


This creates challenges for school librarians, who often work in isolation and struggle to effectively learn and adopt the National School Library Standards. As a result, students, educators, and the broader school communities they serve face inconsistencies in educational practices. Addressing these issues is critical to improving librarians' ability to implement the standards and fostering equitable learning opportunities across libraries.

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) provides resources for school librarians through its Standards Portal. However, the portal is underutilized due to poor navigation, lack of personalization, and insufficient support for different stages of learning and implementation.


This creates challenges for school librarians, who often work in isolation and struggle to effectively learn and adopt the National School Library Standards. As a result, students, educators, and the broader school communities they serve face inconsistencies in educational practices. Addressing these issues is critical to improving librarians' ability to implement the standards and fostering equitable learning opportunities across libraries.

Discover

Research Phase

Our research was grounded in human-centered design principles and aimed to understand how users currently engage with the AASL Standards Portal, what challenges they encounter, and how the portal might better support their workflows.

Our research was grounded in human-centered design principles and aimed to understand how users currently engage with the AASL Standards Portal, what challenges they encounter, and how the portal might better support their workflows.

Observational Studies

Participants (n = 8) completed tasks using the existing portal while we observed their navigation strategies, decision-making, and pain points.

Usability Tests

We tested the existing portal,gather feedback on layout clarity, labeling, navigation, and new content.

Key Insights

Navigation Barriers for Beginners

“Brand new librarians would expect the full standards to be on the site. It’s frustrating when most links on the site are to paid content” - K-12 Librarian

Difficult Access to Standards & Framework

“I prefer physical materials over the Standards portal to find certain resources because they are easy to navigate than the site” - Elementary School Librarian

Unclear Advocacy & Standards Positioning

“The Common Beliefs, Vision, and Mission should be more visible — they remind us why the standards matter and would encourage wider adoption.” - AASL Admin

Lack of Role-Specific, Practical Content

“It would be helpful to have resources more clearly labelled for specific roles to make it easier to quickly find what I am looking for” - University Librarian

Turning these key user pain points into targeted Design Artifacts

We intend to use the site map in prioritizing our efforts in which pages to redesign, as well as understanding potential Information Architecture changes that may need to be made.

We intend to use the site map in prioritizing our efforts in which pages to redesign, as well as understanding potential Information Architecture changes that may need to be made.

The second design artifact user scenarios and journey, which help us capture the needs and motivations of school librarians and administrators. By grounding our stories in research insights, we can prioritize which user flows to investigate and optimize in the redesign.

The second design artifact user scenarios and journey, which help us capture the needs and motivations of school librarians and administrators. By grounding our stories in research insights, we can prioritize which user flows to investigate and optimize in the redesign.

From Artifacts to Opportunities

From Artifacts to Opportunities

We use Google Sheet to translate our insight into clear UX requirements. We then applied priority labels — Need to Have, Should Have, Nice to Have — to distinguish essential fixes from future enhancements.

We use Google Sheet to translate our insight into clear UX requirements. We then applied priority labels — Need to Have, Should Have, Nice to Have — to distinguish essential fixes from future enhancements.

IDEATION

Brainstorm Session

Our team of four collaborated in Figma Jam to turn prioritized design requirements into potential features. Each member first generated ideas individually, then we used stickers to vote on them. Features with the most votes were prioritized for design exploration. Finally, we discussed these prioritized ideas with our client to refine feasibility and alignment.

Our team of four collaborated in Figma Jam to turn prioritized design requirements into potential features. Each member first generated ideas individually, then we used stickers to vote on them. Features with the most votes were prioritized for design exploration. Finally, we discussed these prioritized ideas with our client to refine feasibility and alignment.

Mid-Fidelity

FINAL DESIGN

Design System

To align with AASL current design style, we remade the UI design toolkit to make sure the consistency.

To align with AASL current design style, we remade the UI design toolkit to make sure the consistency.

FINAL DESIGN

Making it Great

Homepage - Before

User unaware icons were clickable

User unaware icons were clickable

Key resources like Standards Crosswalk and Framework were buried

Key resources like Standards Crosswalk and Framework were buried

Homepage - After

Quick access to key resources

Quick access to key resources

Intuitive CTA

Intuitive CTA

Beginner friendly - brief explanation of each foundations

Beginner friendly - brief explanation of each foundations

Shared Foundation - Before

Download” button led to a new tab with a PDF, requiring extra clicks.

Users expected instant download, causing confusion.

To view the next foundation, users had to navigate back manually, breaking flow.

Shared Foundation - After

Summarized content for each foundation shown directly on the page

Pop up window for pdf preview→ view materials without leaving the page

Links to related resources for seamless navigation

Navigation Bar - Before

Role-specific pages hidden under Home, making them hard to find

About and Resources menus were unstructured and unclear

Navigation bar - After

Improves onboarding with a clear Get Started path

Deprioritizes minor tasks (Shop moved under Resources)

Reduces clutter through streamlined menus

What's New?

What's New?

Get Started Page

Get Started Page

Why?

Aligns with client mission: Positions the site as a tool for librarians to educate and advocate for standards, not just for themselves but also for administrators, teachers, and parents.

Aligns with client mission: Positions the site as a tool for librarians to educate and advocate for standards, not just for themselves but also for administrators, teachers, and parents.

What's New?

What's New?

Introduce Glossary

Glossary

Why?

Aims to make terminology easier to navigate. Since the portal functions like an educational site, many specialized terms were confusing for users. The Glossary supports quick lookups, links to related content, and improves overall resource findability.

Aims to make terminology easier to navigate. Since the portal functions like an educational site, many specialized terms were confusing for users. The Glossary supports quick lookups, links to related content, and improves overall resource findability.

FINAL DESIGN

Final Prototype

EVALUATION

Impact

We conducted usability testing on the revised design (30–45 minutes per session), focusing on navigability, accessibility, and role-specificity. This allowed us to compare against the original portal and evaluate whether our redesign addressed the key pain points identified in the first round of testing.

We conducted usability testing on the revised design (30–45 minutes per session), focusing on navigability, accessibility, and role-specificity. This allowed us to compare against the original portal and evaluate whether our redesign addressed the key pain points identified in the first round of testing.

Statistics

navigation efficiency

On average, users completed core tasks 38.8% faster than the original sites

On average, users completed core tasks 38.8% faster than the original sites

Task Success Rate

Task Success

Rate

Task success rate increased to an estimated ~98%

Task success rate increased to an estimated ~98%

User satisfaction

95% Participants responded positively to the new interface, especially the “Quick Start Guide”

95% Participants responded positively to the new interface, especially the “Quick Start Guide”

Ensures equitable access for all users, regardless of familiarity with Standards and levels of digital literacy.

Ensures equitable access for all users, regardless of familiarity with Standards and levels of digital literacy.

Tailored content pathways for librarian, educator, and parent-specific use cases.

Tailored content pathways for librarian, educator, and parent-specific use cases.

Improved page and site structure to increase content visibility and access.

Improved page and site structure to increase content visibility and access.

EVALUATION

Reflection & Next Step

For this capstone project, the class structure emphasized research over design, so our main focus was understanding client needs and identifying the portal’s shortcomings. We were fortunate that our client helped recruit interview candidates, which strengthened our findings. Given time and client constraints, the final deliverable will be implemented in basic WordPress, so we created design templates for reference rather than redesigning the entire site.

For this capstone project, the class structure emphasized research over design, so our main focus was understanding client needs and identifying the portal’s shortcomings. We were fortunate that our client helped recruit interview candidates, which strengthened our findings. Given time and client constraints, the final deliverable will be implemented in basic WordPress, so we created design templates for reference rather than redesigning the entire site.

IF I had more time, We would definitely…

Refine the UI’s visual design and conduct A/B testing with different versions to evaluate effectiveness.


Exploring a mobile version would also be a valuable future direction to expand accessibility and usability

Refine the UI’s visual design and conduct A/B testing with different versions to evaluate effectiveness.


Exploring a mobile version would also be a valuable future direction to expand accessibility and usability

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