By Aaron Schmidt and Amanda Etches, London, Facet Publishing, 2012, 112 pp, £34.95 (soft cover), ISBN 978-1-85604-843-9 (available from Inbooks)
User Experience (UX) Design for Libraries is the eighteenth volume in the excellent Tech Set series of guides, each exploring a new technology deemed to be significant in the future of libraries. Individual volumes explore the lifecycle of these technologies, including planning, implementation, marketing, best practices and measures of success. The series also has an accompanying website at http://www.alatechsource.org/techset, which includes additional information such as podcasts and up-to-date advice.
Aaron Schmidt and Amanda Etches are Principals at Influx: Library Users Experience Consulting. Etches is also Head of Discovery and Access at the University of Guelph Library, where she advises project teams on improving on the overall library-user experience. Both authors have spoken and written widely on the subject of usability.
They offer a step-by-step approach to making a library's website a rewarding user experience. The handbook starts by describing the needs-assessment process and moves on to ways of managing a web project. The bulk of the work concentrates on aspects of usability, such as usability testing and a discussion of methodologies such as use of personas. There are also chapters on best practices, marketing a site and the use of metrics. Most of the advice is generic to all websites, not just those in libraries, but the authors have endeavoured to use library-specific examples of the points they make. The advice is basic, but it operates as a list of topics to cover in any library web project.
The book is illustrated throughout with screenshots and diagrams to reinforce points of discussion. There are lists of usability-testing software tools, editing software and card-sorting applications, as well as a detailed bibliography for further study. The final chapter focuses on some developing trends in the web area, such as the need for a mobile website, although it could be argued that this is no longer a trend but an expected outcome in any current web-redesign process.
The book offers a good basic introduction to making a website usable. The instructions are easy to follow. The book is recommended to those undertaking a web project, but the content is introductory level, and those working in the web space will find the advice already understood.
©2012, Catherine Gilbert