OK, the title of this post is on the hyperbolic side, but I do have a point. But first, a little light entertainment:
Does your library put a Bridge of Death before your customers? Oh, I’m sure you don’t have a Bridge Keeper who requires patrons to answer “these questions three” before approaching the desk, but we do keep patrons away from the information/reference desk in some subtle ways. One of the most subtle and pervasive ways we do this is by placing directional signs in front of the desks.
I was curious to see how my own library handles directional signs, so I stopped by before the library opened and walked around the building. On just about every floor of the building, we’ve placed signs at the escalator landings to ostensibly help patrons find their way to our collections. How many of you have seen signs like these?
These signs predate my time with the library, but I can only assume they were created to cut down on the number of directional questions. Questions like these are repetitive, and speaking for myself, I know I sometimes get a little tired of answering them. Yet the types of questions that are most asked by the public – the “where’s the bathroom” and “can I check this out?” kinds of questions – weren’t always answered by the signs at MPOW.
When thinking about the usage life cycle – the stages that a person goes through when they use a product or service – the point of first contact is the most important point and is one of our last chances to make a good impression. It’s in that point of first contact that we have the opportunity to begin building a relationship with the customer, to leave her with the impression that this is a service that she likes to use, that she chooses to use, not one that she uses because there is no other alternative.
By the same token, learnability is an important aspect of usability and user experience. As designers (and make no mistake, librarians who organize physical spaces are acting as designers in that moment), it is our responsibility to take into consideration how quickly a patron can learn how our system works.
The sign from the Science and Business division is a little more successful in this regard, as they convey their message simply and clearly, with bold graphics and large text that is easy to read at a distance. The sign from the Literature and Social Sciences division, on the other hand, presents the user with many choices in a smaller, more difficult to read font size. Instead of being able to glance at the sign and quickly gain an idea of where they should be going, the user is forced to stop and spend time with a sign, time that could be better spent finding what they’re looking for, or by asking library staff at the front desk for assistance.
While messaging is important, we should also consider where we place signs like these and what message the placement sends to our visitors. I held the camera at chest height and took the photos – I didn’t intentionally place the camera at a lower angle just to prove a point. In both instances, half of the reference desk is obscured by a sign. More often than not at MPOW, we have two or more people staffing the information desk at a time. When half the staff is conveniently hidden behind a sign, we’re sending a subtle message to the patron that there aren’t enough people around to help him find what he needs, so the patron will either go off on his own and try to find what he wants. But let’s get back to the bridge keeper analogy.
In the Python clip I posted, the bridge keeper stops King Arthur and his Knights and asks them to make a decision before they proceed. By placing these signs on the escalator landing directly in front of the information desk, we’re telling the public that in order to get help from us, they must complete an initial stage before proceeding. We’ve introduced a hurdle, albeit a small one, to the patron’s successful completion of their task (to get information and ask for help).
When talking to library staff, one of the common complaints you’ll hear from us is that the patrons don’t use the information desks anymore. Patrons approach us timidly, saying “I didn’t want to bother you” when their frustration reaches a level that they’re forced to ask us to help them find what they need. We’re often baffled by this, and many library staff will say that they don’t know what to do to make people come over to them and ask for help.
Here’s a suggestion – try removing signs like this for a couple of weeks and see whether the public approaches us more often. Sure, we may see an initial increase of the kinds of questions that these signs are intended to cut down on, but I’d venture that if we make it easier for people to approach us for simple things, that they’ll learn that it’s OK to approach us for more serious information requests as well.
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