By designing your library with the user experience in mind, you have the potential to deepen the connection your library has with its community, and make your library a place that people love to use. Amanda Etches and I wrote a book to help you do just that. The book is a practical guide to …
Read MoreEarning the trust of your library members is crucial to delivering a great user experience. Without trust, it is impossible to connect to library members in a meaningful way. Libraries benefit in all sorts of ways when they’re trusted institutions. Trust breeds loyalty, and loyal library users are more likely to take advantage of the …
Read MoreThe identity is based on a modular system of shapes that can form different characters and patterns. The idea is that the kids can have fun with this system – creating stories and characters of their own – and that the identity can continue to grow in many direction. [via HVASS&HANNIBAL] Wow. The act of …
Read MoreLibrarianship has lost its focus – our professional concern for people has been eclipsed by a preoccupation with collections and technology. This is understandable. Historically, libraries have been centered on bringing the world to our members through our collections. This problem of access was important to help solve, meeting a vital societal need. Likewise, our …
Read MoreEven simple library tasks can require library members to use multiple aspects of the library. For instance, take discovering an item, reserving it, and picking it up at the library. Here’s a typical customer journey to accomplish this task: See book recommendation in library newsletter Place hold on book through library website Receive notification email …
Read MoreIn order for a product or service to provide an excellent user experience it has to be useful, usable, and desirable. Libraries are no exception to this rule. In fact, these three characteristics provide a great way for us to analyze the user experience we’re providing. Let’s unpack these terms: USEFUL:The best products and services …
Read MoreAside from paying very little attention to visual design and not caring about the impact of horrible typography, the big problem with library catalogs is that they are not designed to help people accomplish library tasks. Instead, they’re designed to expose catalog records. I’m not even talking about lofty library tasks like learning, creating, and …
Read MoreThis Spring I’ve been teaching a class on library UX for the San Jose State SLIS. In an assignment about analyzing library touchpoints one of my students, Stephanie Aurelio, included this nice sign from the Crocker Art Museum. I thought it was rather nice so she gave me permission to post it here. Thanks, Stephanie!
Read MoreTypography themed maze? Yes! I was assured that the kids’ section isn’t always dark and empty. Looked cool like this though. Note the kid sized self check machines. Am I going soft or have I just been running into good library signs recently? This library had a unified system of good looking signs. One of …
Read MoreI’m super excited to announce a new project from Influx: Prefab: the library website service. Prefab is a ready to launch website designed for libraries. We’ve designed an amazing library website so you can concentrate on developing awesome content. How it works Sign up, fill in your content, launch. All in the same day, if …
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