UnBox: 'The Gordian Knot' to Creative Blocks | Service Design

A Library Service Seemed Simple—Until Primary Research Proved Otherwise

"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." – Jorge Luis Borges
I couldn’t agree more. For book lovers like me, a library truly feels like heaven. And what makes this heaven possible is exactly what we’re going to explore in this article.

As I’ve mentioned before, being a student comes with its perks—one of them being unlimited access to the college library and the freedom to say “it’s for a project” when you want to know about the internal system.

To give you a quick overview: our library operates from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays, with over 200 students and more than five faculty members visiting daily. The campus itself is divided into 4 main clusters: Manet, Design, Engineering, and Gurukul.

For this article, we’re focusing on the Design cluster, which supports seven different schools: the Institute of Design, Architecture, Fine Arts, Kala Sangeet, Humanities & Social Sciences, Film & Theatre, and Fashion Design.

When we look at the library as a service, here’s how it breaks down (PFFAI Analysis):

Product: Information and resource materials — books, journals, newspapers, media content, the TCS portal, and the physical infrastructure itself.

Function: Provides access to knowledge resources, supports both learning and research, and offers a quiet place to study.

Features: Easy accessibility, a convenient system for issuing, reissuing, and returning materials, and an extensive collection.

Attributes: Spacious, clean, and peaceful environment with a customer-centric approach and supportive staff.

Impression: Feels productive, sometimes exciting, often relaxing — though, yes, a bit time-consuming when searching for the right book.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? That’s what I thought too.

So, we decided to go beyond assumptions. We spent time just sitting in the library, observing — What’s really happening here? Who’s coming in? What are they doing? How are they choosing books? What else is going on in the space?

We tried to map out the stakeholders ourselves first, before going ahead and talking to a few of them. And let me tell you, what we found was more layered than we expected.

We reached out to the core stakeholders — students, faculty, and staff — to understand their experiences, the processes they follow, and the challenges they face. One thing we’ve learned over time: people open up when they feel comfortable. So, instead of jumping straight into structured questions, we began with something simple and genuine: “Why do you come to the library?”

This often led to friendly conversations about the love for books, and many times, we’d end up saying, “Yeah, same here…”

Some highlights:

Students:
“I require quiet space to study, work on projects.”
“I am unable to find resources online.”
“I was recommended for a specific subject.”
“I have a habit and like reading books.”

Faculty:
“I come to get inspiration for to create courses around which books to promote reading in my class.”
“I like reading books.”
“Books are more reliable source.”
Library Staff:
“I joined library industry for the love of books.”
“I like a quiet and relaxing workspace.”

These conversations naturally flowed into deeper territory through follow-up questions, and interestingly, topics like security came up, something we hadn’t initially considered but turned out to be an important layer of the overall experience.

I don’t think any amount of secondary research can truly match the depth and clarity that primary research brings, especially when it comes to services that are experienced physically.

Just through our firsthand observations and conversations, we were able to build a complete ecosystem map and service blueprint.

To explore the entire process of our study: [Project: Library Case Study - Service design].

The service blueprint focused on three processes: Issue of a book, re-issue and return. [Zoomed in Version].

The vendors supplying new books, the authorities curating exciting educational material, the staff maintaining usage records and the space itself, and the peaceful, quiet atmosphere—together, these elements make a library feel like heaven for its users.

Nevertheless, every service has scope for improvement and through our research we found some paint points- the ‘Opportunity Areas’ for a service:

Considering these opportunity areas, we suggested the following improvements:

Creative and informative signage: The library could create engaging signage for first-time users and event notifications, which would make it easier to locate the library and access its services. Clear signage also playsa huge part in searching for a book more conveniently.
Digitalisation: The Library can make its processes less manual and more digitised, like using digital ID scanning for entry and exits, ID tapping for book issue/ re-issue services.
Digital floor plan screens: Digital screens for the reference area, which would make it easier for users to locate the book/ material section needed.
Opening Second Entrance: It is already located behind of library, which is closer to the colleges, away from the admin.
Moving SOD and SFT (Drama, Film & Theater) to 4th cluster: These colleges are closer to 4th cluster (Gurukul cluster) near boat building.
Customised wheelchair/Product: For people with disability, provide assistance when required. Have a customised wheelchair which suits the lift size for such a customer.
Automatic notifications: Notifications can be sent upon the issue of the book. Once the due date is near, reminders will be sent via email. Similarly, once a book is ordered, the TCS website can be used to share the status of the process with the customer.
Automated approval workflow: When a new book request is submitted, it will automatically move through the necessary approval stages. Once approved user can get the update on the status
Check-in baggage counter: Students can securely hand over their bags to a library attendant and receive a token number in return, ensuring safe storage and accountability for their belongings.
Expansion of storage space: as the library is expanding, some space can be dedicated to just storing documents.

Last Updated April 2025