user experience

Self-Propelled

6 December 2009
Thumbnail image for Self-Propelled

I didn’t think it was possible, and to be honest, it may just be a flight of fancy that was brought on by the fantastically clear and cold weather we’ve been having this week, but I’m slowly but surely turning into one of those bike people. Not one of the Gore-Tex, spandex clad whippet thin [...]

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I Think I Broke WordPress.com

24 November 2009

For the record, I am a content management system’s worst nightmare. Earlier this morning, I broke Typepad when I tried to delete a blog. I finally got a microblog up and running over there, but I was curious to compare the experience of running a microblog at WordPress.com versus Typepad. I have several blogs at [...]

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I Think I Broke Typepad

24 November 2009

I’m putting this one after the jump, because it’ll throw off the flow of the front page if I don’t. So this morning, I tried deleting my default Typepad blog so that I could set up a new one. The system became unresponsive, so I did the one thing that you’re never supposed to do [...]

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Usability vs. User Experience: What’s the Difference?

16 November 2009

Recently, Jenica Rogers wrote about usability, and how the concept has become quite the buzzword in libraries these days. Jenica wrote that she thought librarians weren’t certain about what usability meant, but that we seem to be paying more attention to it than ever. To illustrate her understanding of usability, Jenica shared some experiences she [...]

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Barack Obama Knows Contextual Inquiry

23 October 2009

I could’ve done a lengthy text entry about contextual inquiry – the technique used to help you understand how environment, physical limitations, and other factors influence user success – but I decided that I had nothing better to do on this rainy, cold Friday afternoon than spend some time searching for images and putting together [...]

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If I Could Build a Library Catalogue

12 October 2009

I know many librarians blanch at the idea of blending commerce and information retrieval – and to be fair, those concerns aren’t completely without merit. Still, I think that there are certain user experience practices that are common place in commercial enterprises that, if we introduced them into our own library catalogues, would delight library [...]

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LCSH Changes – A Win-Win for Librarians and Patrons

30 September 2009

Of the many instances of library classification decisions that make me furrow my brow, the use of the term “cookery” instead of “cooking” as a subject heading is probably first on my list. Thanks to Twitter, I found out that the Library of Congress has decided to do away with cookery in subject headings, and [...]

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Apple: Task Flow FAIL

24 August 2009

(and yes, I know Anil Dash says FAIL is over. I’m just not capable of thinking of another way to put this…) As many of you know, Apple plans to ship the latest upgrade to their operating system (code name: Snow Leopard) on August 28, 2009. It goes without saying that the upgrade will cost [...]

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Lessons in Corporate Transparency: Pixelpipe

18 July 2009

As more libraries are starting to become more transparent when dealing with the public through social media and other online channels, questions may arise around best practices, and what not to do when you’re interacting with the public. This next case is an excellent example of how not to interact with your customers. Pixelpipe is [...]

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