British Library Labs
UX Strategy and UI Design for Multi-User Digital Data Research Platform
The British Library houses one of the world’s largest archival collections, with millions of items spanning centuries of human knowledge. As the experimental arm of this prestigious institution, British Library Labs is committed to delivering digital tools that serve everyone: from genealogy enthusiasts exploring family history to computational humanities scholars conducting advanced research.
It’s therefore critical that the technology these diverse users interact with accommodates their vastly different needs: intuitive browsing for newcomers, sophisticated data access for researchers, and everything in between. Since the digital collections portal is a primary touchpoint for accessing this cultural heritage, it’s an important place to demonstrate excellence in user experience design.
In search of a London based digital design studio that could balance these competing demands while creating something elegant and accessible, British Library Labs approached Browser to oversee the UX design of their digital archive platform.
The Brief
Making the world’s cultural heritage accessible through high-quality digital experiences is key to how British Library Labs operates. Researching historical archives requires many approaches, from casual browsing to computational analysis, so it is essential that they provide users with the tools they need to discover and engage with these materials.
The platform was conceptualised to be a space that serves everyone, a place where casual browsers, engaged researchers, and advanced computational scholars can all come to access and explore one of the world’s most significant archival collections.
Whilst existing platforms performed well for traditional research, we were tasked with designing a system that could serve dramatically different user types with conflicting needs, without compromising accessibility by over-complicating it for newcomers or limiting functionality for advanced users.
Research
The first challenge we faced was understanding how different types of users actually interact with digital archives, rather than how we assumed they would. From initial research with British Library Labs, it became clear that our hypotheses about user behavior proved inadequate when confronted with actual usage patterns.
We discovered that experienced researchers relied heavily on cognitive shortcuts; heuristics they’d developed over years of navigating complex systems and looking for those shortcuts to their goals. Meanwhile, newcomers needed intuitive entry points that mirrored familiar experiences from social media and e-commerce platforms. Most critically, we found that different user segments had fundamentally incompatible interface preferences.
This insight led us to abandon our initial single-interface approach and instead develop a funnel-based navigation strategy that could accommodate varying expertise levels.
Designing for spectrum of users
Our solution was to create a progressive system that meets users where they are and grows with them as their needs evolve. At the top of the funnel, casual users encounter intuitive browsing interfaces with simplified entry points and visual navigation elements. As users become more engaged, the platform progressively discloses more sophisticated tools through contextual guidance.
At the bottom of the funnel, advanced researchers access sophisticated data options including granular metadata control, bulk download capabilities, and API integration for computational analysis. This graduated complexity approach means the interface sophistication scales naturally with user expertise. A critical breakthrough came from recognizing that we needed to support two fundamentally different research paradigms simultaneously. Some users want to visually explore and discover through contextual browsing, while others need immediate access to datasets for external analysis.
We implemented a dual interface paradigm: a visual exploration track with enhanced serendipitous discovery tools, and a data access track with prominent download buttons and computational research support. Rather than forcing users to choose one path, we ensured both could coexist seamlessly within the same platform.
The Designs
Once the design strategy was tested and validated with real users, we needed to get it into a state where it could be implemented effectively. Using Figma, our design team created high-fidelity, interactive prototypes that demonstrated all the interactions, animations, and transitions required throughout the user journey.
These prototypes were used to present to stakeholders within British Library Labs in order to get buy-in, and were then handed over to the development team with detailed documentation covering every component, interaction pattern, and responsive behavior. The result was an incredibly comprehensive design system that left nothing to interpretation.
The Outcome
The funnel-based approach successfully addressed the challenge of serving multiple user personas with conflicting needs. The platform now accommodates both casual browsers and computational researchers without compromising either experience. Complexity barriers for new users were significantly reduced, while advanced functionality for researchers was enhanced.
The reaction to having a system that adapts to user expertise rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all approach was overwhelmingly positive, and consistent with the testing we carried out throughout the design process. Users reported improved discoverability and more efficient pathways to the resources they needed.
The design framework we established provides a foundation for integrating emerging AI technologies, be it from computer vision for document analysis to intelligent search suggestions, while maintaining the user-centered principles that made this project successful.
