Signage by Design: A Design-Thinking Approach to Library User Experience
Signage is a powerful visual tool for communication and a crucial component of the library user experience. Signage can welcome, guide, instruct, and delight users, helping them navigate the complex information world of any library. In practice, however, signage can be problematic, revealing tension...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Michigan Publishing
2016-01-01
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| Series: | Weave: Journal of Library User Experience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/weave.12535642.0001.501 |
| _version_ | 1828816383839830016 |
|---|---|
| author | Edward Luca Bhuva Narayan |
| author_facet | Edward Luca Bhuva Narayan |
| author_sort | Edward Luca |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Signage is a powerful visual tool for communication and a crucial component of the library user experience. Signage can welcome, guide, instruct, and delight users, helping them navigate the complex information world of any library. In practice, however, signage can be problematic, revealing tensions between various stakeholders, and contributing to visual noise through information overload; this often leads to signage blindness, library anxiety, and confusion. This article explores how libraries can use a design-thinking approach to improve the user experience in physical library spaces, particularly with respect to signage, based on our experience at the UTS Library, a university library in Australia that serves the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). We found that a design-thinking approach that uses the processes of empathy, problem definition, solution ideation, prototyping, and testing, can help libraries make significant and meaningful changes that can be adopted at relatively low cost. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T11:02:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cf15e8ebb03a4523a0425fea0e93afec |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2333-3316 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T11:02:11Z |
| publishDate | 2016-01-01 |
| publisher | Michigan Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Weave: Journal of Library User Experience |
| spelling | doaj.art-cf15e8ebb03a4523a0425fea0e93afec2022-12-22T00:26:30ZengMichigan PublishingWeave: Journal of Library User Experience2333-33162016-01-0115dx.doi.org/10.3998/weave.12535642.0001.501Signage by Design: A Design-Thinking Approach to Library User ExperienceEdward Luca0Bhuva Narayan1University of Technology Sydney, AustraliaUniversity of Technology Sydney, AustraliaSignage is a powerful visual tool for communication and a crucial component of the library user experience. Signage can welcome, guide, instruct, and delight users, helping them navigate the complex information world of any library. In practice, however, signage can be problematic, revealing tensions between various stakeholders, and contributing to visual noise through information overload; this often leads to signage blindness, library anxiety, and confusion. This article explores how libraries can use a design-thinking approach to improve the user experience in physical library spaces, particularly with respect to signage, based on our experience at the UTS Library, a university library in Australia that serves the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). We found that a design-thinking approach that uses the processes of empathy, problem definition, solution ideation, prototyping, and testing, can help libraries make significant and meaningful changes that can be adopted at relatively low cost.http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/weave.12535642.0001.501user experience |
| spellingShingle | Edward Luca Bhuva Narayan Signage by Design: A Design-Thinking Approach to Library User Experience Weave: Journal of Library User Experience user experience |
| title | Signage by Design: A Design-Thinking Approach to Library User Experience |
| title_full | Signage by Design: A Design-Thinking Approach to Library User Experience |
| title_fullStr | Signage by Design: A Design-Thinking Approach to Library User Experience |
| title_full_unstemmed | Signage by Design: A Design-Thinking Approach to Library User Experience |
| title_short | Signage by Design: A Design-Thinking Approach to Library User Experience |
| title_sort | signage by design a design thinking approach to library user experience |
| topic | user experience |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/weave.12535642.0001.501 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT edwardluca signagebydesignadesignthinkingapproachtolibraryuserexperience AT bhuvanarayan signagebydesignadesignthinkingapproachtolibraryuserexperience |