Case Study 06 — Search · Open Access · Research

Cloud-based OPAC

My undergraduate thesis product — a cloud library catalogue that puts open-access research alongside the physical shelves.

Role: Designer & Project Lead
Timeline: 2025 — Undergraduate Thesis
Institution: Tai Solarin Federal University of Education, Ijagun
Platform: Web — cloud prototype
Domain: Library & Information Science

My final-year project, awarded First Class Honours: designing and directing the development of a prototype cloud-based Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) for academic libraries in Nigeria.

Traditional library catalogues tell you what's on the physical shelves — and stop there. Meanwhile, a world of open-access research sits a click away, invisible to catalogue searches. This project merged the two: one search box that returns physical library holdings and relevant open-access resources together.

Two information worlds, one interface. Physical library metadata and open-access digital resources are structured, stored and licensed differently — the catalogue had to unify them without confusing either.
Real constraints. Academic libraries in Nigeria often operate with limited infrastructure — the "cloud-based" architecture wasn't a buzzword, it was a necessity for accessibility and cost.
Academic rigour plus product craft. As a thesis, it had to meet research standards; as a product, it had to actually serve students and librarians.

Framing the information problem

The project began with the core information-science question: how should search results present resources from two different universes — shelf metadata and open-access records — so a student can tell, at a glance, what's physically available versus what's instantly accessible online?

Designing the unified search

I designed the prototype around a single search experience that integrated open-access resources into results alongside physical library meta information — with clear source labelling, availability states, and paths to access for each result type.

Directing the prototype build

I designed and directed the development of the working prototype — making the architecture and interaction decisions, and steering the build toward demonstrating the thesis argument in software rather than slides.

A thesis prototype has one job: make the argument real enough to evaluate. Every feature either served that or got cut.

A working prototype

A functional cloud-based OPAC demonstrating unified search across physical holdings and open-access resources.

First Class Honours

The thesis contributed to graduating as Best Graduating Student with a CGPA of 4.52 — First Class Honours.

Where it all connects

This project is the origin story of my product practice — information architecture, user needs and technical constraints resolved into one shippable thing.

Information architecture is product design. How you structure and label information determines what users can find, trust and use.
Constraints clarify. Limited infrastructure and a hard deadline forced decisions that a bigger budget would have let me defer — badly.
Lead the build, don't just spec it. Directing development taught me how design decisions land in code — a perspective I've used ever since.

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