This session examines why research guides often fade from student awareness. Drawing on a redesign project for STEM and Health Sciences students, it highlights how discipline-specific needs and Gen Z learning preferences shape guide engagement. Informed by ACRL standards and user data, the project produced five interactive tutorials to clarify research pathways and address gaps. Preliminary findings on engagement and navigation patterns will be shared. Attendees will learn to identify design challenges such as content sprawl and accessibility and apply user-centered strategies to strengthen guide visibility, usability, and instructional impact. Audience participation will include phone-based polls.
Participants will: 1. Identify and evaluate design and maintenance challenges of LibGuides, such as content sprawl, accessibility, and pedagogical alignment in order to consider evidence-based strategies that make guides more visible, inclusive, and instructionally effective 2. Apply principles of evidence-based and user-centered design, incorporating preliminary findings on student preferences like navigation and layout, in order to enhance the discoverability and user engagement of their own research guides
