Begüm Becermen

Client: The Royal Library of Denmark - Culture Department, Copenhagen, Denmark

Design Team: Begüm Becermen & Esben Grondal - Master Thesis Project

Duration: 02-05.2016

Role & Responsibilities: Service Design Consultancy, Co-Creation, Facilitation and Project Planning | Research, Concept, Visualisation, Pre-totyping, Testing and Interface Design

CONTEXT & CHALLENGE

The Royal Library of Denmark (Black Diamond)  is a cultural institution involving university library, national library, and culture house. The service coordinator of the library asked us how might we improve the experience of the students and trigger their attention to the library, who will be paying future audience of the events at the Culture House.  

RESTRICTIONS

In the period of the project, the institution faced with budget cuts, to comply with the government’s plan to funnel more funds. Which meant that the service offering would have to be at minimum cost to be considered. It was crucial to make sure that the new service offering would align with the strategic vision of the organisation. Moreover, the offering should expand on the activities of the organisation in a meaningful way.    

REsearch

KEY FINDINGS

• Students are using the Black Diamond either as an office space or accessing electronic materials.

• Students are looking to learn outside of the classroom like events, workshops etc.

• Students are using the Black Diamond as an office space to study during their exam period.

• Due to future cuts, the Black Diamond has to look for income-generating activities.

• The shift towards the library as a place for inspiration in broader terms than access to information.

How might the library become more of a platform of learning rather than a silo to access?

SOLUTION

Our solution is called “Crowd Curation” is a crowdsourcing platform to suggest and support ideas for events to be held at the library. The service concept based on the wish to provide more opportunities for active and ambitious students, to get to see speakers who are relevant to their study or interests. The student suggests a speaker to the Black Diamond by using the digital platform and promotes his or her suggestion to get votes. When the suggestion gets enough votes within the time frame, the culture department might arrange the event. The suggester would receive a sizeable discount and also stage time with the presenter. The voters might receive a small discount compared to the regular ticket price to encourage engagement. The overall aim of this service is to position the library as a natural extension of the students’ learning journey.

BENEFITS

Short Term Benefits:

• Supports student learning in a new way

• Generates new engagement with Black Diamond

• Supports the Culture Department in engaging with students

• Provides an opportunity for students to meet with/listen to relevant speakers

• Emphasises the role of the institution as a place for inspiration and knowledge

OUTCOME

PRODUCT REPORT: This report details the service offering, clarify the touchpoints, stakeholders, motivations; and also involves the next testing plan and implementation plan and cost of the platform.

PROCESS& APPROACH

We co-created the design solution with the staffer and the possible users of the service. During the project, students, staff, and experts were involved in the whole design process, all steps of discover, define, develop and deliver.

TESTIMONIALS

Lise Bach Hansen,  Producer at Royal Library of Denmark 

“It is an excellent idea. I love this thought of also engaging the students, engaging them in the programming, making them work for it, and being advocates.”

Maria Christensen, Service Coordinator at Royal Library of Denmark

“..you are asking people, and you are not just asking me and my colleagues, you are also asking the students and you came up with the crowd-sourcing, that was brilliant. I still think it is, because that was obviously, you hit the mark, you hit the target.”