The user experience opportunity : researching and designing more relevant and user-centric library services

Keynote presentation presented at the International Symposium on User Experience (UX) hosted by the University of Pretoria, Department of Library Services on 19-21 September 2023.In this keynote talk Andy will demonstrate the value and purpose of User Experience (UX) work in libraries. As well as detailing some of the specific techniques for researching the needs and behaviours of your users (behavioural mapping, user research interviews, photo elicitation), he will explain how you process and respond to research data by creating, testing and iterating prototypes. Andy will illustrate his talk with stories gathered from academic libraries all over the world and hopes to encourage attendees to build on the excellent UX work already undertaken in South African University Libraries. He passionately believes that this work is primarily about genuinely connecting and collaborating with your users - only then can you be certain that your library services are truly relevant and user-centred

In the social media driving seat

Do faculty staff need guidance in the use of social media? And if yes is there a gap of knowledge and experience that librarians are perfectly placed to fill? The Library at Cambridge Judge Business School wanted to find that out and the ‘Social Media Driving Licence’ was born

Going native: Embracing ethnographic research methods in libraries

For many years libraries have chiefly investigating themselves and their users by sending out surveys and collecting quantitative data. Ethnographic research methods offer librarians alternative and far more illuminating ways to measure user experience

The experience of international students at SLU Uppsala

This report details the key findings, methodology and recommendations derived from UX (user experience) research and design consulting at Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) in October 2019

User experience in libraries: applying ethnography and human-centred design

Modern library services can be incredibly complex. Much more so than their forebears, modern librarians must grapple daily with questions of how best to implement innovative new services, while also maintaining and updating the old. The efforts undertaken are immense, but how best to evaluate their success? In this groundbreaking new book from Routledge, library practitioners, anthropologists, and design experts combine to advocate a new focus on User Experience (or UX ) research methods. Through a combination of theoretical discussion and applied case studies, they argue that this ethnographic and human-centred design approach enables library professionals to gather rich evidence-based insights into what is really going on in their libraries, allowing them to look beyond what library users say they do to what they actually do. Edited by the team behind the international UX in Libraries conference, "User Experience in Libraries" will ignite new interest in a rapidly emerging and game-changing area of research. Clearly written and passionately argued, it is essential reading for all library professionals and students of Library and Information Science. It will also be welcomed by anthropologists and design professionals working in related fields.

User experience in libraries : applying ethnography and human-centred design

xvi, 203 pages : illustrations ; 24 c