by Every once in a while, I raise this poor blog back from the dead. I have a few research projects in mind, and some outstanding ones, and I’m thinking it might be time to start adding thoughts as I research various aspects of these projects. So time for some more musings!
I’ve started reading Badass: Making Users Awesome. I suspect I’ll have lots of thoughts as I read this but the first one struck me when I read the following:
It’s not how the user feels about us.
It’s about how the user feels about himself…
This made me think about our library websites. I think far too often, we’re getting hung up on how the user feels about us. Are we friendly enough, are we welcoming enough? If we showcase X, they’ll think better of us, they’ll be interested in us, they’ll use/visit us.
What if we concentrate on how the user feels about himself instead? How do they feel when they interact with an academic library website (or any library site)? Overwhelmed? Lost? Frustrated? Stupid? Are we designing sites that make them feel empowered, resourceful, smart?
Unfortunately, I fear the answer to that question is too often no. Those of us who work in public services often see the frustrated user, who can’t navigate our websites or databases. Those of us who do user testing have observed users getting lost and overwhelmed as they navigate our resources, questioning their own capabilities.
Let’s switch our website goals – let’s design so that we make the user feel successful. Let’s make sure that sites are not only usable, not only user-friendly, but user empowering. After all, it’s not about us, it’s about them.
