Mobile UX for Academic Libraries: Culture, Context, and Interaction

1. Mobile UX For Libraries:
Culture, Context & Interaction
Kevin Rundblad
User Experience (UX) & Social Technology Strategist
UCLA Library

2. UX The experience of a
product or service

3. User Research
Usability testing
Information architecture
Interaction design
UX Depends on Expertise
Wireframing & UI design
Visual design
Functional Design
Prototyping
Development

4. Not a 1 person equation

5. 3 UX Concepts

6. Understand Users
Know the Context
Create Simple Interactions

7. 1 Understand the User

8. Some starting points for user research:
Focus Groups?
Individual interviews
User analytics

9. “If you truly want to understand
customers' wants and needs,
you need to remove the distance
between you and them.”
Jorge Barba
Digital Strategist, Blu Maya
http://www.quora.com/When-creating-products-how-do-you-know-what-users-want/answer/Jorge-Barba?srid=z3u

10. How do we “remove the distance”
from the user?

11. Work with them.
Work like them.

12. Hierarchical Flowing, person to person
Time-driven 9-5 Work anytime/anywhere
Committees, Meetings Independent/casual meetups
Work at desk Work on Laptop
Being “effective” is only rule = Grade
Us Students
Graphics: http://www.game‐changer.net/2010/11/19/radical‐management‐it‐isn%E2%80%99t‐just‐w‐l‐gore/

13. Can we create
experiences for

14. With this
work structure

15. UX goes all the way back
to how we work.

16. Approaching UX without experiencing
like the user...

17. ...Produces average results that are
always behind the user curve.

18. “...if you get the culture right
then most of the other stuff
will happen naturally out of it.”
Tony Hsieh
CEO Zappos
http://bigthink.com/ideas/20671

19. Example: Simul8 Group
UCLA Library

20. To get in touch with our users
we created a design/development
group with 5-7 students.
Structure mimics the nature of
a small startup company.

21. Meet 3-5 hours a week.
Design projects on whiteboard
Rest of time work independently
Give them space
Have fun

22. User research is then implicit.

23. Their needs are naturally divulged
in course of group work.
Focus groups won’t get to this level.
There is no “user oracle”

24. 2 Know the Context

25. General Mobile Context
1. Limited screen space
2. Limited attention
3. In transit operation
UCLA Context (specific - analytics)
4. On-campus use of mobile site
5. Touch is the dominant interaction

26. General & Specific Context
drives functionality.

27. Focus on Need
Fast Discovery
Mobile Context (general) Single sign‐on
1. Limited screen space Personalization
Recommendation
2. Limited attention Socialized objects
3. In transit operation Time/Device‐shifted
UCLA Context (specific - analytics)
4. On-campus use
5. Touch is the dominant interaction

28. Mobile Context (general)
1. Limited screen space
2. Limited attention
3. In transit operation Better Experience
Target iOS/Android
UCLA Context (specific - analytics)
Focus on Touch
4. On-campus use App level
5. Touch is the dominant interaction

29. 3 Create
Simple Interactions

30. “Mobile is about pivoting people
through information quickly...exposing
possibilities.
Rachel Hinman
Senior Research Scientist
Nokia Research Center
(formerly @ AdaptivePath)

31. To do this,
we need to solve problems for the user.

32. 4 Problems to solve in Academic Libraries

33. Problem #1: Vendor Fragmentation
Constructing an integrated experience
for article discovery.

34. Currently we have disparate database
resources, each in their own mobile
interface.

35. The simplification of finding things
is even more critical on mobile.

36. Need API’s to build mashup
environments. Serials Solutions?

37. Problem #2: Catalog Search
Creating an integrated mobile
search experience of our catalog.

38. What about Worldcat mobile?
Temporary solution

39. Worldcat mobile is outside of our
campus single-sign on.

40. Building mashup records from APIs
provides greatest flexibility.
Worldcat search API
Internal APIs for user account & social
Other APIs and sharing data

41. Problem #3: Data Portability
Off-load content discovered.
Time/Device shifted.

42. Search.
Determine relevancy.
Then save for later.

43. Problem #4: Authentication
Mobile users access via Wi-Fi
and Cellular networks.

44. Wi-Fi allows for mobile device
To be seen like another computer.
IP authentication.

45. Cellular network traffic is not
automatically authenticated.

46. Users on a 3G connection are
given a dead-end, even though
they are on campus.
55% of UCLA Mobile users come from
cellular connections.

47. UX Wrap-up

48. Culture needs to be user-centered.
Fast. Iterative. Experimental.
Creative and Fun.
Best work comes from enjoying it.

49. Develop a “uniquely mobile” site,
around principles of context.

50. Make user interaction simple
by solving problems they face.

51. User Culture
Mobile Context
Simple Interactions
An integrated user experience

52. Kevin Rundblad
User Experience (UX) & Social Technology Strategist
UCLA Library
Presentation will be available online:
http://about.me/rundblad