Debra Kolah, Texas Chapter
Envisioning the future from the user perspective helps us to create the most amazing experiences possible. If we have thought ahead and steered our way through the ever raging course of technology and change, then we are not shocked by the future, but rather feel the electricity of possibility.
The term “user experience,” while familiar in the context of computer usability, is fairly new in the library environment. The first user experience or “UX” librarian job descriptions started appearing only within the last few years.
But UX in libraries is gaining strength. The user experience deserves our attention. My own title changed in December 2009, I was one of three science librarians when I was promoted to the new position of UX librarian. Solo UX work is not uncommon, but it is hard. Now libraries have had a taste of it and the roles are beginning to expand. Over time, UX will become embedded in librarianship, and all librarians will focus on the user experience if we want to continue to exist and thrive.
The future demands that we create a holistic, user-centered, innovative approach to service design for virtual and physical spaces as well as digital and physical collections. Focus groups, surveys, usability studies, embedded librarianship and ethnographic studies are some of the tools used to gather data and anecdotal information about the user experience. We need to focus on the elephant which is the library website as well as the hundreds of little details that go into making libraries places where people want to go. Everyday we have an opportunity to make the library a user-centered place that teaches, inspires, and creates the future.
We must transition staff to new roles. These include: user needs assessment, usability testing, gathering and interpreting statistics, virtual sites design and production (web and mobile), embedding content outside of our own systems (in YouTube, Slideshare, course management systems, etc.), and marketing and communication.
The times we are living in call for creative ways of doing things that we might not have done in the past. We must look at new user needs and discover new ways to become the libraries of the future. That future has the user at the core of everything we do.
Debra Kolah is User Experience (UX) Librarian at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She is a member of multiple divisions and currently serves as Public Relations Chair of the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division.
Hi Debra,
User Experience in my opinion has been undervalued, not just in libraries. Good to know more of use are diving into this area to make sure we build a skill set and experience. I hope more LIS schools will put UX related courses in place, and in general we all learn at least the basics of this “trade”.
Maybe we should suggest a UX track at the next SLA conference? With a “library website extreme make-over”?
regards,
Dennie
Bravo, Debra! Can’t wait to see Fondren’s UX initiative start to take shape.
Hi Dennie,
Thanks for your response! I am happy to report that the SLA Board recently approved a UX Caucus! We will have a program at the conference in Philly! The discussion list will be forming soon, and I hope you will join and participate.
All the best,
Debra
Thanks!
All the best,
Debra
I hate to be a buzzkill, but this phrase reminds me of the redundant phrases “critical thinking” and “evidenced-based medicine.” Aren’t all libraries supposed to be about user experience? Maybe I haven’t read enough about this but I wouldn’t have a job if I didn’t have users and they wouldn’t come to me if I didn’t put them first. What in the world would I put first as a librarian?
Dear E.,
Absolutely, all libraries should be about user experience! UX is more than just caring about users, or putting them first. That is extremely important, of course, but not the only thing. UX, and user-centered design, is about putting them first, in the middle, and in the end! We build things for them, we get feedback from them throughout the process, we remember what it is to be a user, and we remember that providing a great user experience is an ongoing process! Surveys, ethnographic studies, and usability studies are the tools that provide information to us to keep building great things that serve their needs. But it is not only a great digital experience we are after; we can design great physical libraries too! UX is also about being intellectual partners with our vendors to keep them designing great things.
Debra – well put. While my title is “Manager, Search”, I am a member of a four person UX team which includes two librarians. It is incredibly fulfilling work! I would add in response to E Frenchman’s comments that while librarians have a good track record of being user focused, we have a lot to learn from the discipline of UX. I’d say that comparing UX to “knowing users” is similar to those outside the LIS world who would compare cataloging or taxonomy work to data entry. UX is a focused art as much as it is a science, and I’ve learned it takes years to really perfect this unique skill set (just being a couple years in myself I am constantly seeing how much I have to learn!). I’ve also done a variety of projects using some of the methods Debra mentions, and the outcome is always a stronger product/service more closely attuned to the real needs of users than it could have been otherwise.