Design thinking is an approach that brings together what is desirable from a human point of view, what is technologically feasible, and economically viable. It allows organizations to use creative tools to address challenges and transform the way they develop products, services, and strategy. Libraries are one place people still trust for information, but can be confusing spaces. Design thinking can help libraries empathize with users, visualize new ideas, test concepts, and create distinctive experiences through the customer journey to remain relevant organizations.

1. Design Thinking
Jane Leonard

2. Design Thinking
Can transform the way organizations develop
products, services, processes, and strategy.
This approach, which IDEO calls design thinking,
brings together what is desirable from a human
point of view with what is technologically
feasible and economically viable.
It also allows you and your team to use creative
tools to address a vast range of challenges.

3. Design
Design is not just what it
looks like and feels like.
Design is how it works.”
— Steve Jobs

4. Implications
for libraries
• Libraries are one of the few places that people
still trust as valuable and relevant sources of
information

5. • John Muir (1838-1914)
• “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to
everything else in the Universe.” John Muir

6. • Libraries can be as
confusing as an
airport terminal

7. Liquid expectations
• Organizations are benchmarking against
competitors
• Customers are benchmarking against their
experiences with other brands or services

8. Experiential Services
Services where the focus is on the
experience of the customer
interacting with the organisation

9. Customer experience
• An experience occurs when a company intentionally uses
services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage
individual customers in a way that creates a memorable
event

10. The customer journey
• A customer experience is built over an extended period of time,
starting before the actual sales experience or transaction to include
pre and post purchase experiences.
• The journey consists of numerous touchpoints between the customer
and the organization or the brand; these touchpoints need to be
carefully designed and managed
• Each touchpoint has a potential for innovation.

11. Customer/User
Touchpoints
• Each interaction delivers different information
• An opportunity to show how we deliver value

12. Services as
Journeys
• Journeys include pre- and post purchase
experiences
• Physical and virtual journeys
• Innovation can be the whole journey
• Can also be part of a continuous stream of
innovations to improve elements of existing
journey

13. Service design
• Service design is specifically talking about the
design of services, which inherently is looking at
the customer’s experience with a service as well
as the organisational experience in delivering it.

14. Think about your users
• What are their paths through your library?
• What do they see?
• What do they ignore?

15. Design Dimensions
Behind the scenes
• Environment
• Library staff
• External team
• Service delivery
process
Customer
Customer experience
Other customers
Front stage
Administration
support
Resources

16. Find a boundary spanner

17. Taking action
• Visualize ideas
• Create customer journey paths
• Involve people

18. Organisations
that leverage
a Design
Mindset
Make places and experiences
distinctive
Make
Empathise with people in situationsEmpathise
Stand in the future and prototype a
better world
Stand
Imagine ideal usage experiencesImagine
Sense and value what is newSense
Grapple with ambiguity more
comfortably than most
Grapple
Systematically test and iterate
concepts until they get them right
Test
Simplify and clarify informationSimplify
Dramatically affect preference and
value
Affect

19. Next steps
Think about a small number of large
changes or a large number of small
changes

20. Want to know more?
Contact us:
jane@reallyuseful.ie
Call us on 0214651881 or mobile 0868169663
Tweet me @Really_Useful

21. Credits
• UXLib.org
• https://blogs.ifla.org/public-libraries/2015/01/13/design-thinking-
toolkit-for-libraries-released/
• https://www.kennylyons.ie/portfolio-item/tullamore-central-library/
• https://hbr.org/1998/07/welcome-to-the-experience-economy
• http://diytoolkit.org/toolkitting-transformation-by-remko-berkhout-
josine-stremmelaar/
• https://www.accenture.com/ie-en/insight-expectations-vs-
experience-good-bad-opportunity