Things That Squeak and Make You Feel Bad: Building Scalable User Experience Programs for Space Assessment
This article suggests a process for creating a user experience (UX) assessment of space program that requires limited resources and minimal prior UX experience. By beginning with small scale methods, like comment boxes and easel prompts, librarians can overturn false assumptions about user behaviors...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Michigan Publishing
2018-04-01
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| Series: | Weave: Journal of Library User Experience |
| _version_ | 1818036422955761664 |
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| author | Rebecca Kuglitsch Juliann Couture |
| author_facet | Rebecca Kuglitsch Juliann Couture |
| author_sort | Rebecca Kuglitsch |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article suggests a process for creating a user experience (UX) assessment of space program that requires limited resources and minimal prior UX experience. By beginning with small scale methods, like comment boxes and easel prompts, librarians can overturn false assumptions about user behaviors, ground deeper investigations such as focus groups, and generate momentum. At the same time, these methods should feed into larger efforts to build trust and interest with peers and administration, laying the groundwork for more in-depth space UX assessment and more significant changes. The process and approach we suggest can be scaled for use in both large and small library systems.
Developing a user experience space assessment program can seem overwhelming, especially without a dedicated user experience librarian or department, but does not have to be. In this piece, we explore how to scale and sequence small UX projects, communicate UX practices and results to stakeholders, and build support in order to develop an intentional but still manageable space assessment program. Our approach takes advantage of our institutional context—a large academic library system with several branch locations, allowing us to pilot projects at different scales. We were able to coordinate across a complex multi-site system, as well as in branch libraries with a staffing model analogous to libraries at smaller institutions. This gives us confidence that our methods can be applied at libraries of different sizes. As subject librarians who served as co-coordinators of a UX team on a voluntary basis, we also confronted the question of how we could attend to user needs while staying on top of our regular workload. Haphazard experimentation is unsatisfying and wasteful, particularly when there is limited time, so we sought to develop a process we could implement that applied approachable, purposeful UX space assessments while building trust and buy-in with colleagues, administrators, and users.
The essential thrust of our approach is to perform small, carefully selected projects that can be accomplished with very little pre-existing support, and to communicate methods, results and goals with stakeholders in order to develop trust and buy-in across the organization. Building that trust sets the stage for better collaboration with peers and an increased likelihood of support from upper management, improving the chances that libraries will be able to act on gathered data in a meaningful way. Building trust with and engaging peers is essential to making changes to services and spaces. Building trust with upper management can help secure access to the financial and social resources needed to make larger changes. In this article, we will discuss how to establish a process of small interventions and create buy-in from colleagues and administration in order to meet more significant needs. By combining several low-effort techniques, libraries can begin to integrate a consistent approach to assessing and improving the UX of their physical spaces even with minimal institutional support. Those efforts can lay a foundation for better understanding and acceptance of UX work generally within the library, as well as making improvements to library spaces that matter to users. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T07:10:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1f7e84f6b02440898812b59273e3e8c9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2333-3316 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T07:10:42Z |
| publishDate | 2018-04-01 |
| publisher | Michigan Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Weave: Journal of Library User Experience |
| spelling | doaj.art-1f7e84f6b02440898812b59273e3e8c92022-12-22T01:58:03ZengMichigan PublishingWeave: Journal of Library User Experience2333-33162018-04-0118http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/weave.12535642.0001.801Things That Squeak and Make You Feel Bad: Building Scalable User Experience Programs for Space AssessmentRebecca KuglitschJuliann CoutureThis article suggests a process for creating a user experience (UX) assessment of space program that requires limited resources and minimal prior UX experience. By beginning with small scale methods, like comment boxes and easel prompts, librarians can overturn false assumptions about user behaviors, ground deeper investigations such as focus groups, and generate momentum. At the same time, these methods should feed into larger efforts to build trust and interest with peers and administration, laying the groundwork for more in-depth space UX assessment and more significant changes. The process and approach we suggest can be scaled for use in both large and small library systems. Developing a user experience space assessment program can seem overwhelming, especially without a dedicated user experience librarian or department, but does not have to be. In this piece, we explore how to scale and sequence small UX projects, communicate UX practices and results to stakeholders, and build support in order to develop an intentional but still manageable space assessment program. Our approach takes advantage of our institutional context—a large academic library system with several branch locations, allowing us to pilot projects at different scales. We were able to coordinate across a complex multi-site system, as well as in branch libraries with a staffing model analogous to libraries at smaller institutions. This gives us confidence that our methods can be applied at libraries of different sizes. As subject librarians who served as co-coordinators of a UX team on a voluntary basis, we also confronted the question of how we could attend to user needs while staying on top of our regular workload. Haphazard experimentation is unsatisfying and wasteful, particularly when there is limited time, so we sought to develop a process we could implement that applied approachable, purposeful UX space assessments while building trust and buy-in with colleagues, administrators, and users. The essential thrust of our approach is to perform small, carefully selected projects that can be accomplished with very little pre-existing support, and to communicate methods, results and goals with stakeholders in order to develop trust and buy-in across the organization. Building that trust sets the stage for better collaboration with peers and an increased likelihood of support from upper management, improving the chances that libraries will be able to act on gathered data in a meaningful way. Building trust with and engaging peers is essential to making changes to services and spaces. Building trust with upper management can help secure access to the financial and social resources needed to make larger changes. In this article, we will discuss how to establish a process of small interventions and create buy-in from colleagues and administration in order to meet more significant needs. By combining several low-effort techniques, libraries can begin to integrate a consistent approach to assessing and improving the UX of their physical spaces even with minimal institutional support. Those efforts can lay a foundation for better understanding and acceptance of UX work generally within the library, as well as making improvements to library spaces that matter to users. |
| spellingShingle | Rebecca Kuglitsch Juliann Couture Things That Squeak and Make You Feel Bad: Building Scalable User Experience Programs for Space Assessment Weave: Journal of Library User Experience |
| title | Things That Squeak and Make You Feel Bad: Building Scalable User Experience Programs for Space Assessment |
| title_full | Things That Squeak and Make You Feel Bad: Building Scalable User Experience Programs for Space Assessment |
| title_fullStr | Things That Squeak and Make You Feel Bad: Building Scalable User Experience Programs for Space Assessment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Things That Squeak and Make You Feel Bad: Building Scalable User Experience Programs for Space Assessment |
| title_short | Things That Squeak and Make You Feel Bad: Building Scalable User Experience Programs for Space Assessment |
| title_sort | things that squeak and make you feel bad building scalable user experience programs for space assessment |
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