Space to Think: Co-Designing a Library Environment for Student Ideation

Abstract

The University of Oregon (UO) Libraries recently launched the campus’s first ideation room, the Innovation, Design, Education, and Aspire (IDEA) Space. The IDEA Space differentiates from other creative spaces such as makerspaces, digital humanities labs, and media centres by its focus on the intellectual aspects of the design thinking process – generation, development, and testing of ideas – rather than the practicalities of prototyping and production. This case study discusses the co-participatory design process used to create this new space, including focus groups, user voting, policy discussions around access and technology, and plans for iterative design changes and assessment moving forward. Key takeaways from the student-initiated project included the need for developing a shared understanding of the spaces’ purpose and scope across a variety of stakeholder groups, managing expectations regarding aspirational versus attainable goals, and the difficulty of maintaining the continuity of a student-initiated project in the face of student turnover.