The Future of Library
User Experience
2009 Urban Libraries Council Webinar Keynote

Social Impact of Technology, UCSD
10 years, 1,200 participants, 231 studies
Hey I’m Nate Co-author “Remote Research”
Robotic Dog Treat Dispenser

Founded in 2002
San Francisco
7 People
One Book

ulcwebinar.com

#ulctalk
@boltron

The Bad News.

“Est-ce que Google
nous rend idiot ?”
Nicolas Carr.
Le Monde. June 5th, 2009

“I wish there was like a
netflix for books. Like you
can just order whatever you
want, and then when you’re
done you can just give it back
and take out another one.”

tech⋅nol⋅o⋅guy

It Really Is A Series of Tubes
Molly Wright Steenson - Princeton

Chaco, Rin
What the Angel Gave Me
1 million copies

What is User Experience ?

Peter Morville
Semanticstudios.com

Frank Spillers
Bryce Glass
Experiencedynamics.com

Michael Cunnings | uxdesign.com

e "Universe" of User Experience
Packaged APIs
Design
Deliverables
Interaction
Solutions
Architecting the
Usability Design
Technology
Prototyping
Back-End
Creative Design Information
inking (Visual & UI) Architecture
Flash
Programming
AJAX
(JavaScript)
Designing the
Experience
Content User
Research DOM
Front-End Scripting
User Experience Development
CSS Delivering the
Problem
Accessibility Experience
Framing Business
Intelligence
User
Markup Agents
Defining the
Problem Requirements
Account
Gathering / Project Mgmt.
Research Mgmt.
Managing the
Project

The Elements of User Experience Jesse James Garrett
jjg@jjg.net
A basic duality: The Web was originally conceived as a hypertextual information space; 30 March 2000
but the development of increasingly sophisticated front- and back-end technologies has
fostered its use as a remote software interface. This dual nature has led to much confusion,
as user experience practitioners have attempted to adapt their terminology to cases beyond
the scope of its original application. The goal of this document is to define some of these
terms within their appropriate contexts, and to clarify the underlying relationships among
these various elements.
Web as software interface Concrete Completion Web as hypertext system
Visual Design: visual treatment of text,
Visual Design: graphic treatment of interface
elements (the "look" in "look-and-feel") Visual Design graphic page elements and navigational
components
Interface Design: as in traditional HCI: Navigation Design: design of interface
design of interface elements to facilitate elements to facilitate the user's movement
user interaction with functionality
Interface Design Navigation Design through the information architecture
Information Design: in the Tuftean sense:
designing the presentation of information Information Design Information Design: in the Tuftean sense:
designing the presentation of information
to facilitate understanding to facilitate understanding
Interaction Design: development of Interaction Information Information Architecture: structural design
time
application flows to facilitate user tasks,
defining how the user interacts with
Design Architecture of the information space to facilitate
intuitive access to content
site functionality
Functional Specifications: "feature set":
detailed descriptions of functionality the site
Functional Content Content Requirements: definition of
content elements required in the site
must include in order to meet user needs Specifications Requirements in order to meet user needs
User Needs: externally derived goals User Needs: externally derived goals
for the site; identified through user research,
ethno/techno/psychographics, etc. User Needs for the site; identified through user research,
ethno/techno/psychographics, etc.
Site Objectives: business, creative, or other
internally derived goals for the site Site Objectives Site Objectives: business, creative, or other
internally derived goals for the site
task-oriented Abstract Conception information-oriented
This picture is incomplete: The model outlined here does not account for secondary considerations (such as those arising during technical or content development)
that may influence decisions during user experience development. Also, this model does not describe a development process, nor does it define roles within a
user experience development team. Rather, it seeks to define the key considerations that go into the development of user experience on the Web today.
© 2000 Jesse James Garrett http://www.jjg.net/ia/

seems complicated

People Before Systems

Experience Before Systems

Logic ≠ Intuition

Logical
photo by flickr.com/photos/80849382@N00/3306939463/

Intuitive
photo by flickr.com/photos/51035750608@N01/117683322/

Make Wikipedia Easier to Edit.

Your Organizational Hierarchy is Showing.

The Future of Library User Experience

Not the future of libraries
photo by flickr.com/photos/zac-attack/202605234

And, umm, how far in the future,
exactly?

“10 Years.”
Bill Buxton
Principle Researcher, Microsoft.

“30 Years. I
write science
fiction, and for
some reason
people think
that this means
I can predict the
future.”
Charlie Stross
Login, 2009

“We walk backwards into the future”
Marshall McLuhan

10 Years.
Location Electronic Shift of
Aware Ink Focus
Devices
WWDC It’s Been 10 From Library
Years Legacy
Systems to
Experience

Screw That, Future Boy.
What Can Libraries Do
Tomorrow to Improve UX
facing a 5%-7% Budget
Cut?

1 2 3
Watch Draw or Play With
Three Build One a Free
People Web Page Open Tool
Use Your
Site
Don’t ask Outside your Freebase,
them a thing current Google
until they are architecture. Squared,
done. Use Open
Wordpress. Library,
Google Wave
Preview.

Even Farther In The Future

Three Principles
1 Open Architecture Wins
2 Build Small
3 Behavior not Opinions

Open Architecture.
It’s not open source.

API
Application Programming Interface

Build Technology That
Plays Well With Others

Even Google

“Open playing field for generative
books.”
George Oates. Open Library.

Build Small
Forget about large system consequences

Research Behavior.
Ignore Opinions.

Read all the links at
ulcwebinar.com

What Public Libraries are
Doing Right and Wrong

Heuristic Review
Nashville Boulder Charlotte Orlando

Open, user-generated

But…What does ‘Database by Topic’ mean?

Links that say different things…
but go to the same place

A Window to Your Database

Closed System

Proximity Matters

Mental Models
Indi Young
As PDF or Book

The Summary

Tomorrow
Watch three people. Draw or build a wordpress page.
Play with an open free tool.

10 Years.
Electronic Ink, Location Dependent Devices, Shift of Focus to
Experience

30 Years.
Open Architecture Wins, Build Small, and Behavior not
Opinions

How do you know when
something is innovative?

“It’s been done before”
- Bill Buxton | You remember him from the intro right

“It’s scary”
- Marty Neumeier | The Designful Company

@boltron
nate@boltpeters.com
ulcwebinar.com
flickr.com/photos/striatic/