Bernd writes:
> I saw a great quote once on the intertubes that kinda nails
> it down: "Sometimes you don't just need a better hammer, but
> a different tool altogether."
Reminds me of a favourite phrase of an old boss of mine "When all you have in your toolkit is a hammer - everything starts to look like a nail"
You are right, we have been trying to 'nail' down this problem using some well worn, and probably well loved, tools from our old battered tool bags. Maybe a look in the hardware store to see what is new, may help us supplement those tools and refresh our thinking.
Richard.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Bernd T. Wunsch
> Sent: 05 May 2007 10:48
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> Subject: [NGC4LIB] SV: [NGC4LIB] Vendor management support
> for user-centered design
>
> Richard Writes:
>
> > "The first one I spoke to, who was pointing at the
> shelf-mark code on
> > a result said 'what's that gobbledegook for?' I explained it is
> > supposed to help her find the shelf the book is on. 'Why
> can't I have
> > a little map showing me?' came the response"
> >
> > "The second simply said 'why does this thing keep telling
> me about the
> > things I can't have!' and wandered off"
>
> - Sometimes I feel that problems like these have just become
> part of our everyday job. I can't recall how often I've
> actually explained our own "gobbledegook" to help guide
> people to right shelves.
>
> Richard Also Writes:
>
> > "In an ideal world we would have built the student User
> Interface; the
> > researcher UI, the high school UI;
> ......
> > all supported by variations of a catalogue each tuned to deliver
> > results most relevant for each target user group."
>
> This is an important point to make: Most libraries don't have
> just one "usergroup". It's also important to note that
> People don't want to use our catalog for just one reason. A
> student might use it to discover subject material, look up
> books in his collection to get proper quotes, etc. Teachers
> might be verifying that they are teaching by books which
> students can find their library. The list of usecases is quite large.
>
> Your OPAC is different tool in different situations:
> Sometimes a hammer, sometimes a saw. Currently our approach
> is usually a "Swiss Army Knife" OPAC: It does everything, but
> just not very well. Perhaps we should look more into what
> people actually 'Want to Do' and then offer them the best
> tool for the situation.
>
> I saw a great quote once on the intertubes that kinda nails
> it down: "Sometimes you don't just need a better hammer, but
> a different tool altogether."
>
>
>
> Regards,
> - Bernd Wunsch.
>
>
>
> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> Fra: Next generation catalogs for libraries på vegne af Richard Wallis
> Sendt: lø 05-05-2007 10:07
> Til: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> Emne: Re: [NGC4LIB] Vendor management support for user-centered design
>
> I was about to dive in to replying with a view from a 'vendor' when a
> programmer colleague (not a librarian bone in his body) related the
> following tale to me, after a visit to one of our customers.
>
> "I was in the library talking to some OPAC users" - well that's an
> excellent start!
>
> "The first one I spoke to, who was pointing at the shelf-mark
> code on a
> result said 'what's that gobbledegook for?' I explained it
> is supposed
> to help her find the shelf the book is on. 'Why can't I have a little
> map showing me?' came the response"
>
> "The second simply said 'why does this thing keep telling me about the
> things I can't have!' and wandered off"
>
> Well that may not be user-centred design but it's definitely
> user-centred feedback.
>
> I can cast my mind back more years than I care to calculate
> and remember
> my introduction to the library software world. Just like any other
> industry [and I've been involved with a few] I was greeted
> with the "but
> our problems are very different to what you will find
> elsewhere" message
> - but all industries say that. After a couple of years I realised it
> was true, we 'are' different. Firstly we have a stock control system
> where the customers insist on giving the stuff back most of the time.
> Secondly, we have enormously rich structured metadata about that stock
> which seems to preoccupy us more than the stock itself.
>
> So have we vendors added value to what libraries do? Yes.
> Have we got it right? No.
> Has anyone, vendor or not, got it right? No. - If they had, we would
> all be too busy copying them to be having these discussions.
>
> So back to the question in hand - User-centred design is
> important, very
> important, but first define your user. The problem we have had and
> still do, as the recent flurry of activity on this list testifies, is
> that there are many potential user types for what we historically
> envisage as a single system.
>
> In an ideal world we would have built the student User Interface; the
> researcher UI, the high school UI; the reference librarian UI; the
> enquiry desk UI; the library science UI; the children's UI;
> the general
> public UI; the plugged-in to my citation management software UI; my
> Google-gadget UI - all supported by variations of a catalogue
> each tuned
> to deliver results most relevant for each target user group.
>
> Pie in the sky? If you separate the user interface from the
> underlying
> cataloguing, indexing and searching capabilities of a solution I think
> not. If you design the 'catalogue' to flexibly support the searching,
> indexing, and relevance ranking needs of all these user
> groups you will
> be able to lay many different [cheap to produce for a
> library, a vendor,
> or even a user] UI skins on top of it.
>
> These thin UI skins, on top of a flexible powerful platform, are much
> simpler and quicker to develop - in days/weeks as against the
> months/years of our traditional monolithic systems. Because
> of this we
> can consider not only user-centred design, but also user centred
> development. In the future I want my programmer colleague to
> be sat in
> the corner of a reading room for a few days constructing the user
> interface that the users want/need with their direct input, help,
> criticisms, and instant feedback.
>
> This is the premise that is behind much of the development work around
> the Talis Platform which is proving that this sort of thing
> is possible.
> www.talis.com/platform is the place to go to find out more
> about it. We
> are looking for people to work with us as we start to roll these
> services out, but also just as importantly I believe that our
> experiences in this area will be valuable to the community in general.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> > [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Casey Bisson
> > Sent: 04 May 2007 15:50
> > To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> > Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Vendor management support for
> > user-centered design (was "[NGC4LIB] Our Workflow Works
> > against us Was: [NGC4LIB] user-centered design")
> >
> > Mark,
> >
> > your question gets to the center of the very problem we face.
> >
> > To vendors, the customer is the user, and the customer
> > generally gets what s/he pays for. But that doesn't mean we
> > get what we want or need.
> >
> > Our purchasing processes, limited R&D investments, and
> > stagnant marketplace are among the real problems perturbing
> > us today, but we have to remember that we're living with a
> > beast that we created.
> > Fortunately, I think _we_ can solve it (and this list is rich
> > with people rushing to do just that).
> >
> > Related: two blog posts about a purchasing process here that
> > led to big ticket spending on a software suite that still has
> > yet to serve the users we bought it for:
> >
> > http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/11291/
> > http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/11298/
> >
> >
> > Casey Bisson
> > __________________________________________
> >
> > Information Architect
> > Plymouth State University
> > Plymouth, New Hampshire
> > http://oz.plymouth.edu/~cbisson/
> > ph: 603-535-2256
> >
> >
> >
> > On May 4, 2007, at 9:57 AM, Andrews, Mark J. wrote:
> >
> > > I wonder if some of the software developers working for our vendor
> > > partners, lurking on this list, could share some of their
> > experiences
> > > with user-centered design on the list?
> > >
> > > I am particularly interested in how much support developers
> > get from
> > > management in supporting (with people, time and money)
> > user-centered
> > > design. I understand that this is a difficult question to answer
> > > frankly - if that is not possible, that is okay.
> > >
> > > Mark Andrews, Creighton University
> >
>
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The very latest from Talis
read the latest news at www.talis.com/news
listen to our podcasts www.talis.com/podcasts
see us at these events www.talis.com/events
join the discussion here www.talis.com/forums
join our developer community www.talis.com/tdn
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Any views or personal opinions expressed within this email may not be those of Talis Information Ltd. The content of this email message and any files that may be attached are confidential, and for the usage of the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient, then please return this message to the sender and delete it. Any use of this e-mail by an unauthorised recipient is prohibited.
Talis Information Ltd is a member of the Talis Group of companies and is registered in England No 3638278 with its registered office at Knights Court, Solihull Parkway, Birmingham Business Park, B37 7YB.
Received on Sat May 05 2007 - 04:21:05 EDT