User Experience, UX, is a term to describe the relationship between a person and a company or organization, service, or product. Think of Swarthmore’s Libraries and all your interactions with its web properties, services, and spaces. How would you describe your user experience, how could the libraries find out about it, and what might we do to improve it? 

Research is needed to understand users’ experiences, and like all research, UX research begins with questions: How do we know whether people are finding and accessing the resources they seek? Where are they finding resources? What kinds of things get in the way of exploring our Special Collections as a novice user? How could library spaces become a better destination for focused study time?

The libraries offer a full-year internship to students who want to learn more about UX and get experience conducting user research. In the Fall semester, students meet weekly to learn and practice research methods, including creating empathy and journey maps, conducting interviews, managing and organizing website content and facilitating web usability tests.

Attention shifts to independent projects in the spring, when interns may research a question of their choice, not only about library services, spaces, and websites, but about almost anything on campus — as long as their research may feasibly be accomplished within the semester.

Come to McCabe’s LibLab on Friday afternoon, April 3, for a poster session where this year’s interns will present their research questions, process, results of their projects, and recommendations for change:

• Aviva Weiser, ‘26: How much does furniture arrangement affect study space desirability?
• Catherine King, ‘27: How do study habits unfold over the course of a semester, and how does this affect what spaces students choose for study?
• Ivy Lin, ‘28: How effective are bulk campus emails to student class lists and to what extent do students find them useful or relevant?
• Lena Habtu, ‘26: How could the Media Center simplify the process of creating academic posters?
• Nayra Humala, ‘27: How can students more easily learn about all the opportunities available to them at Swarthmore? How might a single repository co-locating all the opportunities work?
• Nicole Barmasia, ‘26: How intuitive is a prototype of the new Libraries’ website?
• Yeimely Garcia, ‘26: How usable is the TriCo Transit app?

Are you interested in becoming an Intern? Reach out to Assessment & User Experience Librarian Mary Huissen for more information, or apply to be a part of the 2026/27 cohort of the User Experience Internship in JobX.