Getting Started with User Experience: Improving Library User Interactions

• Would you like to help your organization improve the customer checkout experience?
• Ever wondered why there is such a low completion rate for your registration forms?
• Do you know if customers are finding what they need on your organization’s website or in its physical spaces?

Stop guessing and start researching answers to these types of questions. User Experience (UX) can help you identify and test the assumptions you make about your customers’ interactions with your library. And, you can do this without fancy consultants, expensive equipment, or tons of time.

The best way to get started with UX is to do it! During the first week of the course, you learn to understand what UX is and why you should use it. For the remaining three weeks, you will identify a problem to solve for with UX, create a research plan, and conduct your first research session. This course will have you taking immediate action toward improving your customers’ experiences with your organization.

Course Description: This four-week online course will provide a process, resources, and useful tips and techniques that can be applied immediately. During the course, you will participate in discussion forums and you will be able to share your experiences and questions. Assignments will ask you to apply the concepts to your own library and community.

Course Outline: When you log in to the Infopeople online learning site, you will see weekly modules with these topics:

• Week 1: What is User Experience (UX)?
  • Peter Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb
  • Accessibility
  • Phases of the design cycle
• Week 2: Identifying Design Problems
  • Selecting target user groups
  • Identifying user needs or problems to solve
• Week 3: UX Methods
  • Various UX methods
  • Preparing research materials (such as interview questions, prototypes, informed consent forms, etc.)
  • Protecting research participants’ privacy and confidentiality
• Week 4: Conducting Research
  • Recruiting and working with research participants
  • Analyzing research findings and making decisions based on those findings
  • Sharing findings with stakeholders

Pre-course Assignment: None.

Time Required: To complete this course, you can expect to spend 2 1/2 hours per week, for a total of ten course hours. Each week's module contains readings and various options for assignments, discussions, or online meetings. You can choose the options most relevant to your work and interests. Although you can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night, it is recommended that you complete each week's work within that week to stay in sync with other learners.

Who Should Take This Course: Library staff who want to take some of the guesswork out of improving their library customers’ experiences.

Online Learning Details and System Requirements may be found at: infopeople.org/training/online_learning_details.

Learner Requirements: None.

After the official end date for the course, the instructor will be available for limited consultation and support for two more weeks, and the course material will stay up for an additional two weeks after that. These extra weeks give those who have fallen behind time to work independently to complete the course.

Keywords: user experience