Librarians are not new to designing or assessing services, but we tend to develop each service in isolation from the other services we offer, with little to no user input prior to implementation. Service design is a holistic, co-creative, and user-centered approach to understanding user behavior for creating or refining services. In service design, we look at the entire ecology and the holistic experience of using the Library and its services from the user’s perspective. This session explores the service design methodology as a relevant method for service assessment and creation in a library environment and discusses the various tools libraries and librarians can use to implement a service design approach to assessment. It also illustrates the service design approach with a case study from the Reed College Library. Presented at NISO Virtual Conference: Interacting with Content: Improving the User Experience. Presenters: Joe Marquez & Annie Downey.

1. Service Design for Better UX
Joe J. Marquez, MLIS
Annie Downey, PhD, MLS
Reed College Library

2. Services and UX UX is not just about UI

3. What is a service?
Services are these intangible, co-created exchanges that cannot be possessed.
They are contextual. They exist in an ecology.
They have purpose/function.
They have interactions.
They are human centered.

4. What is a service?
They can only be experienced.
Everything is a service.

5. What are services and where do services happen?

6. What are services and where do services happen?

7. What are services and where do services happen?

8. What are services and where do services happen?

9. What are services and where do services happen?

10. What are services and where do services happen?

11. What are services and where do services happen?

12. What are services and where do services happen?

13. Library as
System Libraries are tightly coupled
systems.

14. Libraries are tightly coupled systems
“A system is a set of things interconnected in such a way that they produce their
own pattern of behavior over time.” (p.2)
“Once we see the relationship between structure and behavior, we can begin to
understand how systems work, what makes them produce poor results, and how to
shift them into better behavior patterns.” (p.1)
- Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems
Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems : a primer. White River Junction, Vt: Chelsea Green Pub.

29. Service Design What is it?

30. Service Design, a definition
“Service design is a holistic, co-creative, and user-centered approach to
understanding customer/user behavior for the creation or refining of services.”
- Marquez & Downey
Marquez, J., & Downey, A. (2015). Service Design: An Introduction to a Holistic Assessment Methodology of Library Services. Weave: Journal of Library
User Experience, 1(2). http://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/weave.12535642.0001.201

31. Service Design Mindset
● Holistic
● Empathetic
● Focus on User Needs and Expectations
● Co-Creative
● Confirming the Evidence
● Open minded, or No Devil’s Advocate
● Ability to Make the Intangible Tangible
● A Willingness to Evolve

32. Phases of Service Design
Pre-Work
Observation
Understanding / Thinking
Implementing
Maintenance and Continuing
Feedback Loop

33. Phase: Pre-Work
● Buy-in
● Communicate
● Create teams
● Create scope (goals)
● Begin scheduling
● Ground rules
● Assign roles
● Draft activities

34. Phase: Observation
Goals
● Gather initial insights
● Initial interviews to create a sense of how services/resources are being used
● Survey
Tools
● Ethnography
● Surveys
● Space Analysis
● Personas

35. Phase: Understanding/Thinking
Goals
● Co-create solutions
● Visualize behavior
● Prototyping
● Testing
● Refining
● Synthesizing
Tools
● Customer Journey Mapping
● Journaling
● Scenarios
● Prototyping

36. Phase: Implementing
Goals
● Implement & test
● What metrics determine success?
Tools
● Blueprints

37. Maintenance and Continuing
Feedback Loop
● The project does not end at implementation.
● Continue to measure efficacy of service delivery
● Test often, refine as needed

38. Reed College
Space Usage
Study &
Findings Students are creatures of habit,
they have favorite spots, and
they have sacred beliefs.

39. Reed College Study, Overview
Goal
• Understand how students use the physical library and library services/
resources.
Scope
• Defined by College Librarian
• Changed and refined over time to focus more on space usage
Timeline
• Two+ years
• Plan in fall / implement in spring / data analysis and report writing in summer
Two groups
• Library Usability Group (LUX) = staff
• Student advisory group = users

40. What did we learn from the students?
• students are creatures of habit
• wayfinding
• culture of the library
• hierarchy
• library spaces are consecrated spaces
• naming conventions
• additional services: refilling stations, printing, better website
• chairs, uneven
• small repairs needed throughout library

41. What did we learn about the process?
• Plan early
• Test often
• Get buy-in early
• Communicate about the process – explain what you are doing and what you
are NOT doing
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions
• Leave all preconceived notions about your students (users) at the door –
approach the process with an open mind

42. Any Questions?
???

43. The Article

44. Thank you!
Joe Marquez
e: jmarquez@reed.edu
t: @joughm
Annie Downey
e: adowney@reed.edu