ArchivAuth:
A New Archival CMS
Project Overview:
This is a conceptual solution to a real-life problem I was working to solve in my job as an Archivist.
Project Objective:
Design a new system to streamline the management and archival arrangement and description for the Archives of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.
My Role:
User research, competitive analysis, information architecture, wireframes, prototypes, and user feedback
Duration:
6 months (winter/spring 2021)
Process:
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Research Define Design Test Review
Background
The Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (SNJM) is a congregation of Catholic Sisters, associates and lay consecrated who are dedicated to the full development of the human person through education, social justice, contemplation and the arts. SNJM has an archives department that is responsible for preserving and promoting the history of the congregation. Like many religious communities, SNJM is starting to plan for a future when the congregation no longer exists. One decision that needs to be made is what will happen to the archives and their records that document nearly 175 years of history. The SNJM archives has a significant backlog of collections to process and a shrinking timeline, possibly as few as ten years, to complete the processing of all collections and to get the archives for a potential transfer to a new repository.
This project analyzes the current workflows of the archives staff and determines if a new content management system would streamline their work. The research elements of the project are a real-life project I worked on, but the design of a new product is entirely conceptual. SNJM does not have the resources to build or pay to have built a new CMS system.
Research
User Journey
The first step in the process was to map out the existing workflow with a User Journey Map. This documents the five primary tasks involved in processing a collection, as well as two additional, but separate tasks (research and collection additions) that are regularly performed. This led to the discovery of some pain points:
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Collection information is divided between too many different files/formats.
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Staff are not making good use of their current CMS.
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Not all information is written down, meaning junior staff rely on senior staff's memories.
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No easy way to search unless the collection name is already known.
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No connection points between related collections.
Competitive Analysis
After some research on the larger field of archival CMS, I looked more in-depth at 3 CMS competitors: Part Perfect 5 (the current CMS SNJM has, but doesn't really use); ArchivesSpace (an open-source option that would need to be hosted); and ArchivEra (a commercial SAAS).​ I made pro/con lists for each competitor to guide my design.
Other Research
The primary users of the CMS are the archives staff, which includes 3 trained, professional staff, and a variety of volunteer senior citizens. I created personas for these two user groups. Their needs are largely the same, although the professional staff are also concerned about the system meeting professional standards, and the volunteers, who are less tech-savvy, want to ensure the system is easy to use.
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Define
Problem
When SNJM Archives staff are processing a collection, they are required to document collection description and metadata in at least four different places/file types, all of which are independent of one another. Additionally, the archives has a CMS that does not function as they would like, and therefore, is not fully utilized. This is a problem because when metadata needs to be updated, the staff member needs to take the time to update the information in all of the different files. All of the archival documentation is very siloed, which slows down the workflows and will make for a complicated transfer of information should the archives need to be transferred to another repository after SNJM ceases to exist in its current form. The SNJM Archives needs a CMS that will enable a more efficient and streamlined workflow.
Goals
Based on the user research, a number of goals were made for the new CMS:
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Design a CMS with a simple, easy to use interface.
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Have all metadata for a collection in a single place.
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Follow archival professional standards.
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Ability to search easily within archival holdings as a whole.
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Robust inventory module that promotes collection hierarchies and enables sorting the content.
Design
An Archival CMS is industry standard for archival management. Since SNJM may need to transfer their archives in the not too distant future, a CMS would significantly expedite the transfer of metadata should the need arise. Whether or not to design a CMS was never really a question. The big question was how to design the best CMS for the SNJM archives.
User Flow and Storyboards
I began the design process by creating storyboards for how I envisioned users to be able to use the new CMS. One scenario was processing a collection, and the other was conducting a search. From here, I created a user flow to include the basic elements the CMS would need to include to achieve these two tasks. Initially, the diagram continued to grow as I added more features, but ultimately prioritized and focused on the basic necessities to complete the two essential tasks documented in the storyboards.
Wireframes and Prototype
Once I had a user flow mapped out, I created basic wireframes in Figma for each page and pop-up I planned on adding to the CMS. This let me determine layouts for the various elements I was planning on including, and made me think about how best to layout the pages to make them consistent and intuitive. When the organization was finalized, I added the visual design elements to the wireframes and added interactivity to the Hi-Fi prototypes so a user could work through the process of processing, searching and browsing.
Test
User Feedback
The Hi-Fi interactive prototype was sent to a handful of my archival colleagues from various institutions for general, qualitative feedback. The consensus was that the designed CMS is useful and usable. There were several comments on how nice it was to have everything for a single collection in one place. However, there were a few additional features that were requested to improve the product, including:
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Repository-wide reporting
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More advanced settings to allow for some customizability
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Subject module to allow for searching or browsing by subject
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Review
This project has come to an end, for now, with the prototype as the final product for this basic archival CMS that enables the users to fully process and document a collection, as well as browse and search the archive's holdings. Many more features could be added to further the scope of the project, but this would also complicate the project, and simplicity was one of the goals. Overall, I am pleased with the prototype for ArchivAuth and know that if it could be developed, it would greatly improve the workflows of the SNJM archives.
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Lessons Learned:
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Journey mapping to document the current workflow and user flow diagrams to plan the new product were the assets that were the most useful to me during the design process. Being able to see the workflows fully displayed made it easier to wrap my head around the scope of the project and see where I was missing elements.
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For a project as complex as a CMS, it is very important to prioritize! Do not try to add everything at once.
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This project would have been improved with the addition of collaboration. I can only imagine how useful it would be to work on a design team where you can bounce ideas off of one another.
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The visual design elements on the prototype look a little bit dated. I need to keep learning about visual design to make designs that look more modern.
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Thank you!
Please contact me with any questions or comments.