By now, you’re probably wondering where my series on user experience in libraries went. I haven’t abandoned it, and saying that “life got in the way” is the oldest cop-out in the book. Still, it’s true – life has been throwing challenges at me left and right the last few weeks, and being able to sit down and concentrate on writing anything more than a couple of sentences long has been nearly impossible.
So to try to make up for my lack of updates, I wanted to let you know about a resource that will help you better understand the difference between usability tactics and strategic user experience. My former colleague (and the person who taught me almost everything I know about user experience) Paul Sherman made his presentation “Usability vs. User Experience” available for viewing or immediate download at his website, Shermanux.com. Paul outlines the key differences between usability and strategic user experience, and provides insight to why the “find and fix” approach to application design is only useful when you have a user experience road map in place. I strongly recommend that you spend some time reading Paul’s presentation so that you can understand how the tactics I’ll ultimately discuss are all part of a larger, more strategic approach.
And while you’re at it, you might want to have a gander at Paul’s User Experience Team Kit. While it’s pretty unrealistic to think that libraries will be able to hit the ground running with a full-fledged UX team in this time of cutbacks and reduced services, the kit will help managers and library staff understand a bit more about the software development life cycle, and how to incorporate user centered design methods in your projects.
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