Useful, Usable, Desirable : Applying User Experience Design to Your Library

Useful, useable, desirable: like three legs of a stool, if your library is missing the mark on any one of these it's bound to wobble. Every decision you make affects how people experience your library. In this useful primer, user experience (UX) librarians Schmidt and Etches identify 19 crucial touchpoints such as the library website, email, furniture, parking lot, events, and newsletters. They explain why each is important to your library's members and offer guidance on how to make improvements. From library administrators to public relations and marketing staff, anyone concerned with how members experience your library will benefit from this book's

• Coverage of the eight principles of library UX design, explaining how they can guide you to better serve your library's members
• Advice on simple, structured ways to evaluate and improve aspects such as physical space, service points, policies and customer service, signage and wayfinding, online presence, and using the library
• Scorecard system for self evaluation, which includes methods for determining how much time, effort, and skill will be involved in getting optimum performance

Easy to dip into as the need arises, this book points the way towards ensuring that your library is a welcoming space for everyone.

Aaron Schmidt has been a circulation clerk, reference librarian, and library director. He has published articles in Library Journal, School Library Journal, Library High Tech News, ONLINE, and other journals. He has presented on the topic of library technology and usability throughout the United States and in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Spain. In 2005, Schmidt was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker. Currently he is a principal at INFLUX Library Users Experience Consulting and maintains Walking Paper, a library and website usability blog.

Amanda Etches is the Head of Discovery & Access at the University of Guelph Library, where she spends her time guiding teams and projects that are all about making the overall library experience better for users, both in-person and online. Prior to her current role, she was the User Experience Librarian at McMaster University Library. She is also part of Influx, a user experience consultancy that works with libraries. Her research interests include human–computer interaction, information architecture, and web/interaction/UX/service design, and she frequently writes and presents on web design, usability, and user experience practices and trends. Amanda blogs at etc.