1. Pioneer Library System November 21, 2008
From Customer Service to User Experience: Using Design Thinking to Exceed User Expectations
Steven Bell –
Associate University Librarian
Temple University
Pioneer Library System
November 21, 2008

2. Even Our Students Know

3. Questions What are challenges we face Can design thinking help
How is UX different from customer service
What would a great library UX be

4. Our
Environment

5. The Age of User Experience
What Defines It?
Make it simple
Complexity/Confusion are deal breakers
If you have to learn it – we have a problem
Good design is critical
Features get used if they provide a good user experience
Source: EWeek.com -

6. Google Experience vs. Library Experience
Simple
Satisfies instant gratification
No unnecessary features
Millennial seal of approval
Complex
Takes time to learn
Many features
Added value
Better quality
Personalized help
Just looking at this from the point of view of the user experience – clearly there are lots of pros and cons for each
Simplicity – Complexity Conundrum – how to resolve the tension between the two yet encourage quality research and education

7. What Do Libraries Offer? Fear of Complexity

8. Marginalizing Trends
Bell
*2005 OCLC Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report

9. Marginalizing Trends
*2005 OCLC Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report

10. Source: BusinessWeek IN Supplement June 11, 2007 http://www

11. From: Curran, Murray and Christian
From: Curran, Murray and Christian. “Taking the information to the public through Library 2.0.” Library Hi-Tech Vol. 25. No. 2, 2007 pp

12. Only The Paranoid Survive
Andy Grove, Founder of Intel, wrote this book about surviving competition and change
Wrote about the “inflection curve”
We have no control over the “forces of change” but we can control our strategy

14. Source: Moyer, Don. A Silver Bullet
Source: Moyer, Don. A Silver Bullet. Harvard Business Review, May 2008 p. 132

15. What’s Broken At Your Library?
Library anecdote – “This is broken”
See Seth Godin’s blog or his presentation at GEL2006
Bell

16. What’s Broken - Activity
This is a 2-4 minute activity
Think about something at your library that you think is broken. Either something that doesn’t work or a solution that has no problem attached to it.
Just jot down a description of that on a sheet of paper
Also – why do you think it is broken?

17. Design Thinking

18. DESIGN Word Association Turn your sheet of paper over
What comes to your mind when you hear the word
DESIGN
write it down

19. Do you think library workers are designers?
Question
Do you think library workers are designers?

20. What is Design Anyway?

21. What They Have in Common
The Design Approach!
empathic thinking
identifying the problem before the solution
brainstorming process
prototyping process
formative/summative evaluation

22. Work creatively to identify and develop the solution
Identify the problem before the solution
Understand the users
Work creatively to identify and develop the solution
Bottom Line – it’s how designers approach challenges
Key Points:

23. Design Thinking
Approaching library problems the way designers approach design problems.
“Librarianship by Design” draws mostly from instructional design for influence
How is it different?
Thoughtful process to create new services
Integrates needs assessment and evaluation
User-centered not technology-driven 23

25. Design Thinking Empathic Design Prototyping process
Formative and summative evaluation
Use podcast example - everybody had different ideas; everybody wanted to do something; no one wanted to take the first step - so nothing happened. NOW - using DT - first - what do our users want - what will help them - how will they use it - how will they get to it.; NEXT idetify a prototyping project makes doing this for the first time more approachable for staff - we know this is just the start of pracess. 25

26. Technology Implementation Wiki Case Study
Identify problem – possible solutions
Wiki identified as technology with potential
Learn more about wikis
Practice editing a wiki
Obtain a wiki account for experimentation
Show staff but allow time for acceptance
Identify compassionate pioneer
Allow pioneer to experiment and discover
Develop strategy for implementation
Incorporate staff training/learning
Implement
Evaluation

27. User
Experience

29. Designing A Better Experience: The Experience Economy
Book about designing user experiences
Moving from commodities to experiences
Make it different and memorable
It has to work

31. UX: What is it? A Definition:
UX is the quality of experience a person has while interacting with a specific design.

32. Customer Service vs. User ExperienceCS UX
Caring
Nice
Go extra mile
Courteous
Training
Satisfied Patron
Fast/Convenient
Answers
Rule Bending
Holistic
Totality of Experience
WoW Factor (not broken)
Memorable
Loyalty
Localized
Design-based
What kind of experience
Understanding user
This is the question I’ve been asking for some time – what is the great library experience – how do we create it – well we have to know what the objective is

33. UX: The WOW Factor One school of thought UX as highly unique
UX as unexpected
UX as impressive

34. UX: The Totality of the Experience
Not just one fragmented experience
More than one WOW
Must be designed into the larger library service operation
Creates equal expectations throughout library
Refer to PQ anecdote – they hired a user experience specialist – but I said to her – if a pq db is great – but then student finds printer jammed – forget it – the great

35. From Customer Service to Experience
Start with core values – design from there
Focus on relationship design – build trust
It’s more than customer service
Must be useful and usable (simple/complex)
Think about UX as the brand

36. Design a Better Library User Experience
Design for local audiences
Design for personal experiences
Design for outcomes not features
Design for success stories
Design for user education
Local – know what their assignments are – tailor resoruces – create instructional products that resolve specific informaiton gaps – critical to have faculty involved in this localization – particuarly in development assignmetns that point to local resources – and that make it less possible to satisfice with free internet resoruces – need to differentiate local from “everything else”
Engaging – tough – we can’t turn library resources into video games – but need to reach student’s enherent desire for a challenge - and coonect to those added values that will make their lives easier (e.g., citation formatting – I know we could debate the pros and cons of that)
Personal – reach out to patrons – this is about marking – about differentiating what the library offers
Options – take a minute and show the STE video on “bad day” – you won’t get anywhere being a lib db pusher – focus on telling people about their option – then show jux2 - a low threshold way to get students thinking about different options –and why – at a level they can relate to – always opens up eyes.
Outcomes – if you get into minutia about loads of features (e.g., limiters, ) you may lose folks – focus on outcomes – how better quality info can result is a better quality paper – don’t worry if they don’t use the features you would use – maybe even goes for controlled vocab – IF WE have GOOD integrated IL in place – over time – they will learn
USER education – what we want – students who are wise info consumers can happen over time – give anecdoate – ACRL virt conf and fac member and librarian who collaborated – great – but too high expectations – students still didn’t search that well or do well on IL questions embedded in their cousre test – you can’t learn this stuff in one course – I asked – found out they had no tiered, integrated IL initiative – it’s really going to take the whole 4 years to impact on affective domain and create some true learning. 36

37. Next Steps Talk to the users Talk about the core values
Talk about the design
Talk about the “tolerance level”

38. Add Your Voice To The Conversation38

39. 39

40. Further Reading
“Academic librarianship by design is about more than confronting marginalization. It is about an approach to librarianship that is guided by creative thinking and contemplation about what we do and how we do it.”
“We anticipate that it is only a matter of time before design thinking appears in academic library job descriptions along with traditional qualities such as being dynamic, creative, innovation, and forward thinking. From our point of view, design thinkers represent all these qualities.”
Academic Librarianship by Design: A Blended Librarians Guide to the Tools and Techniques. ALA Editions 2007.

42. Questions? Discussion!