Keywords
UX, EX, User Experience, Employee Experience, Library Development
Description
User experience (UX) refers to users' emotions, experiences and behavior when using products, systems and services. Traditionally, UX is applied to assess changes with websites and operating systems, but libraries have started applying the same usability principles to their physical spaces and services. NMC´s Horizon Report 2017 estimates that valuing the user experience is on-trend the coming years. Used as a set of tools in library development, UX methods enables us to understand and improve library users' experiences. Mixing qualitative and quantitative techniques to obtain deeper insights into user needs: A key point being to discover needs users themselves are unaware of. In this paper, we present on-going research on and development of library spaces and services at the University Library of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. We aim to continuously develop our fifteen libraries as inspiring learning environments for students and researchers. UX methods are central to our projects on a small and large scale, and we have actively sought our users' perspectives during library planning the last five years. However, we will argue that we still need to explore ways of implementing findings from using UX methods, to anchor the importance of user perspectives in library development, and to integrate changes based on UX methods among our coworkers. The paper will present four UX projects at our libraries combining several methods, with examples from the interpretation and processing of collected data. We will discuss (1) why UX is a good model for developing library spaces and services, (2) the challenges of identifying, implementing and evaluating measures, and (3) how involving our coworkers in UX methods is the best way to further integrate UX in developing our libraries. The key to success is knowing both ourselves and our users and their needs, and to use methods with both users and employees in mind.
Knowing me, knowing you. Making user perspectives an integrated part of library design thinking
User experience (UX) refers to users' emotions, experiences and behavior when using products, systems and services. Traditionally, UX is applied to assess changes with websites and operating systems, but libraries have started applying the same usability principles to their physical spaces and services. NMC´s Horizon Report 2017 estimates that valuing the user experience is on-trend the coming years. Used as a set of tools in library development, UX methods enables us to understand and improve library users' experiences. Mixing qualitative and quantitative techniques to obtain deeper insights into user needs: A key point being to discover needs users themselves are unaware of. In this paper, we present on-going research on and development of library spaces and services at the University Library of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. We aim to continuously develop our fifteen libraries as inspiring learning environments for students and researchers. UX methods are central to our projects on a small and large scale, and we have actively sought our users' perspectives during library planning the last five years. However, we will argue that we still need to explore ways of implementing findings from using UX methods, to anchor the importance of user perspectives in library development, and to integrate changes based on UX methods among our coworkers. The paper will present four UX projects at our libraries combining several methods, with examples from the interpretation and processing of collected data. We will discuss (1) why UX is a good model for developing library spaces and services, (2) the challenges of identifying, implementing and evaluating measures, and (3) how involving our coworkers in UX methods is the best way to further integrate UX in developing our libraries. The key to success is knowing both ourselves and our users and their needs, and to use methods with both users and employees in mind.