>We don't expect people to know how to drive a car
>without some instruction. Using your phone, camera,
>DVD player, or IPod takes some learning.
As another poster pointed out, iPods dominate the mp3 player market
because they are simple to use. The same goes for most Apple products.
Apple has demonstrated that people will pay more (often a LOT more) for
electronics and software that are easy to use. They will even do so
when there are fewer options and advanced features (ex. the various
iterations of the Mac operating system).
Google is simple. Amazon is simple. Both have more advanced features,
but the base functionality is pretty instinctual.
Before I became a librarian, I was a programmer for almost a decade. I
specialized in corporate web development. Though I focused more on the
back end technology, I did quite a bit of interface development, as
well. One of the first lessons I learned was that ease of use can make
or break a website (corporate or not), even if it is rich in resources
and useful special features.
When people get frustrated with a website, they simply leave and go
looking for another one (most of the time). That has been demonstrated
over and over again, since the 90s. The same is true for specialized
websites, like OPACs.
If Amazon decided that people really SHOULD quit complaining about a way
a feature works, it wouldn't have become the top book selling website.
eBay has gone the opposite route during the past year, ignoring the
needs and desires of their users (both buyers and sellers), and the
negative effects of that decision are already becoming evident.
Ultimately, our opinion on the way patrons SHOULD use or catalogs isn't
important. Our job is to make the catalogs more user-friendly, for the
same reasons as Amazon and Google.
Jesse Ephraim
Youth Services Librarian
Southlake Public Library
1400 Main St., Ste. 130
Southlake, TX 76092
Email: jephraim_at_ci.southlake.tx.us
Phone: (817) 748-8248
FAX: (817) 748-8250
www.southlakelibrary.org
uncommonly friendly service
Received on Mon Mar 16 2009 - 19:09:21 EDT