desirable. UX Research and Design improves user journeys and directly results in higher user satisfaction and productivity: goals that it’s difficult for anyone to argue against! In fact, in those organisations where I’ve helped staff to embed UX, they have told me that they have found it so much easier to prove the relevance and value of their work and services and, if they have Customer Service Excellence accreditation, to continue to meet its demands. Often a library’s renewed focus on users also prompts the wider institution it sits within to follow suit and employ these approaches, thereby making the library a flagship of innovative good practice.
IP – Have you got any examples of UX work in action?
AP – Three recent examples that immediately come to mind: the testing of a possible music room in a library with a piano made from cardboard, in response to requests derived from user drawings and break-up letters for more creative areas; paper prototypes of a new library website devised after usability testing and a build-your-own-website activity for users; and feedback from interviews that a library needed more comfortable informal learning spaces prompting staff to create a 3D scale
model – a box with a peephole – as a talking point to gather information on possible furniture and equipment in such spaces.
IP – Are there any trends that are or have emerged in UX in recent years, and how do we stay connected to these shifts when they happen? AP – There’s more and more use of UX methods to explore and respond to the wellbeing of library users and also active exploration of the needs of under- represented or underserved users with a view to delivering services that are more inclusive and less one-size-fits-all. There is a lot more UX work going on in general, but I still see a lot of library staff out there congratulating themselves on new digital signage systems, reading rooms and library websites that have been devised in total isolation from the user. Services that look great but which might never be used, or at least not used as much as they would be had library users been included in the design process. To meet greater demand for sharing good practice in UX methods we are currently planning to organise a ‘UX in Libraries: Australasia’ in addition to the annual UK event so there will be another conference where library staff can come together to share stories and inspire each other.
IP – Finally, based on your experience, what would you say is the biggest barrier to conducting UX work? AP – When I ask library staff this question, they usually say having the time to do it, but UX work should really involve quickly identifying user problems (and not gathering too much data) and rapidly prototyping solutions. UX should not take up a lot of time! I think the biggest barrier is actually ourselves, breaking away from both our routines and old-fashioned default research methods (surveys and focus groups), and bravely using alternative methods that offer deeper and richer user insights. And as with most things in life, the trick is also to simply get started and not to plan and overthink your approach too much. Provided you keep your users at the front and centre of your process, rather than library staff assumptions and agendas, you won’t go far wrong. IP
l Find out more about User Experience work, Andy’s book is A Handbook of User Experience and Research & Design Libraries (UX in Libraries, 2021), or visit the UX in Libraries website (this year the annual UX in Libraries conference is in Liverpool from 10-12 June):
https://uxlib.org/ uxlibs2025/ Andy’s own website is: https://
andypriestnertraining.com/
Summer 2025
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68