Identifying information needs and responding with services lies at the core of information professional practice. For me, its most important aspect is how strongly it calls for a proactive approach. It is not only about waiting to respond to user inquiries, but about looking beyond what is asked to understand the context, noticing where users hesitate, and recognizing what might be missing.
In my Human Information Interaction course, our group designed a service to address accessibility issues in employment-related information for newcomers. When we presented our final prototype, one classmate who was born and raised in Canada thanked us for sharing our work and said it was something she had never thought about before. That comment stayed with me. It led me to reflect on how much of what we notice, and what we overlook, is shaped by our own experiences.
As someone who hopes to support research and learning for people from diverse backgrounds, I keep coming back to this idea. To better understand challenges beyond our own experience, it is not enough to rely on assumptions or wait for users to come to us. Instead, we must take initiative to go out, observe how different communities navigate information, and build relationships with the communities we serve. Through this process, we can begin to recognize needs that are not directly expressed and design services that are genuinely meaningful to them.
My Growth
At the beginning of my MLIS program, I approached this competency in a relatively straightforward way. I focused on answering users’ questions as clearly and accurately as possible, treating the question itself as the need to be addressed.
Over time, my approach began to change. Through both coursework and my work at the David Lam Library reference desk, I started to see that what patrons ask for is not always the same as what they actually need. A question often reflects only part of a larger situation. In my interactions at the reference desk, I became more attentive to the context behind each inquiry, such as where users are in their research process, what they have already tried, and where they seem to be stuck. Instead of moving directly to an answer, I began to spend more time asking follow-up questions, and adjusting my response accordingly.
At the same time, I began to look beyond individual questions to consider the broader and more structural needs behind them. For example, through my experience as an international student and my interactions with students at the reference desk and in my studies, I came to see that these needs are often shaped by cultural and structural differences across academic systems, rather than simply gaps in information or digital skills.
As a result, what international students ask at the reference desk may not fully reflect the challenges they are experiencing. A question about finding sources, for example, may also point to unfamiliar academic expectations or uncertainty about how research is approached in this context. This has led me to pay closer attention to patterns across interactions and to think more carefully about how services can respond not only to individual inquiries, but also to shared, less visible challenges.
Key Artifacts
1. Reference Desk Experience – Interpreting Needs in Context
My work at the David Lam Library at UBC, where I provide research support to business students, was where I first began to rethink how I identify information needs. At the beginning, I mainly focused on finding a clear answer, usually taking the question as it was.
At times, this felt frustrating. There were moments when students asked questions that I could not find a direct answer to using our resources. I remember one student asking how many tourism ships operate in British Columbia. I searched but could not find a clear answer, and my initial instinct was that I had reached a dead end.
Instead of stopping there, I asked a few follow-up questions to better understand what they were working on. Through the conversation, I realized the question was for an assignment, and what the student actually needed was a way to gauge the market size of the sightseeing boat industry. Once I understood that, I approached the question differently. I guided the student to relevant business databases and showed them how to find information on companies involved in water sightseeing. This gave them a more useful way to address their actual need, and with my guidance, they also learned how to use the database for future work.
Experiences like this gradually changed how I see my role. I began to realize that my work is not simply about finding answers, but about working through questions with users and helping them move forward. To make sense of this shift, I started keeping a diary of my interactions, noting what users initially asked and how their needs became clearer as we talked. Looking back at these moments helped me become more aware of the gap between the question and the underlying need, and more comfortable navigating that space with users.
2. Employment Information Service Design– Addressing Structural Gaps
My work in the Human Information Interaction course further pushed me to think beyond individual interactions and consider how services can respond to broader challenges.In the “Job Mingle” project, a course-based group project in my Human Information Interaction class, we conducted research with Chinese newcomers in Canada to understand how they look for jobs and what challenges they face in accessing employment-related information.
What stood out in our research was that the main challenge was not simply a lack of information. While many participants were able to find job postings, they faced significant barriers due to limited social networks, which restricted their access to informal knowledge and insider information, as well as informal channels of the job market. There was also a clear emotional dimension, with participants describing uncertainty and isolation in navigating the job search process.
In response, we designed a forum-based platform that brings together information and opportunities for connection. Features such as topic discussions, user groups, and curated resources were intended to support both information sharing and relationship-building.
3. Newcomer Health Information App (UX Project) – Supporting Navigation and Action
Through my coursework and projects in information system design, I gained tools to better understand users and respond to their needs by thinking not only about what information to provide, but how it is structured and presented.
As part of this coursework, our group designed a mobile application to support newcomers in accessing healthcare information in British Columbia.
We began by conducting user research using user personas and user journey mapping. At first, we assumed that language was the main barrier. However, by mapping out and analyzing each step of how newcomers navigate the system, we found that the bigger challenge was unfamiliarity with how the healthcare system works as a whole. Even when users understood terms like “family doctor,” they often did not know what it meant in practice or how to access one. At the same time, too much scattered information made it hard to know what steps to take.
In response, we designed the app with a focus on how health information can be organized to support action in real-life situations. Instead of simply listing available resources, we structured them into clear pathways for newcomers with different levels of familiarity and different goals. For example, information about finding a family doctor was organized to explain what the role is, how to register for a waitlist, and what to do while waiting. This made the process easier to follow and reduced uncertainty.
Areas for Further Growth
While I have become more attentive to users’ underlying and structural needs, I would like to continue developing my ability to identify these needs across a wider range of communities and contexts. This includes learning how to engage more directly with users beyond one-on-one interactions, such as through outreach and collaboration.
I also want to further strengthen my ability to translate these insights into service design. While my projects have focused on structuring information to support use, they have mainly remained in a project setting. I hope to gain more real-world experience to see how these approaches work in practice and continue learning from that process.