Learning from Your Patrons: An Introduction to User Research
April 18, 2017 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm MDT
User research doesn’t need to be time-consuming or expensive. A single librarian can conduct and analyze simple patron evaluations with technology readily available in nearly any library. Small scale research projects, done at regular intervals, can continuously improve library services, and help you to see your library through your patron’s perspective.
Join us as we discuss how to conduct some basic research with your patrons to help make your website or other services easier to use.
Resources:
Websites
- Steve Krug Usability Demo
- Write Better Qualitative Usability Tasks: Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid
- Usability.gov
- Usability Body of Knowledge
- Nielson-Norman Group – Usability 101
Books
- Rocket Surgery Made Easy – Steve Krug
- Don’t Make Me Think Revisited – Steve Krug
Facilitator: Babi Hammond
Babi Hammond is the Colorado State Library’s Digital Experience Consultant. He received his MSIS from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2012, and before coming to Colorado worked at NCSU Libraries and Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He has conducted, or helped conduct, some form of user research at all of his library jobs, and is eager to promote more such research here in Colorado. He lives in Denver, and is kept more-or-less sane by his wife, two daughters, and getting up early to watch the birds in his back yard.