Rebecca Blakiston

Rebecca Blakiston has been a librarian at the University of Arizona Libraries since 2008, and the website product manager since 2010. She provides oversight, management, and strategic planning for the library website, specializing in guerilla usability testing, writing for the web, and content strategy. She chairs a website steering group and meets regularly with staff from across the library to facilitate communication, training, and collaboration. She developed a process for in-house usability testing, which has been implemented successfully both within website projects and in an ongoing, systematic way.

In 2012, she was project manager for the complete rebuild and redesigns of two archive and research center websites at the University of Arizona: Special Collections the Center for Creative Photography. In 2014, she was project manager for another ambitious project: the complete rebuild and redesign of the main website for the University of Arizona Libraries. She led the user research efforts for all of these projects, which included surveys, focus groups, card sorting, and, of course, usability testing.

In 2013, she organized the 6-course certificate program in user experience for Library Juice Academy, and teaches the online courses, Do-It-Yourself Usability Testing, Writing for the Web, and Developing a Website Content Strategy. She has presented extensively on usability testing and other user research methods, website content strategy, and website redesign efforts. She advocates for ongoing, systematic efforts to improve the user experience, and she hopes that you do the same.