Signage & Wayfinding Readings

• lettering too small if meant to be read from distance, opposite if for up close
• too wordy for a glance
• font not legible
• not enough white/negative space around letters
• poor contrast between colors
• words or symbols are unclear
• cheaply made, poorly mounted, old
• located where hard to see at point of need

• Wayfinding parameters include: stacks arrangement, service points, furniture, computers, other tech placement, study rooms, lighting. Wayfinding has links to cognitive psychology.
• "User experience literature points to need to understand touch points" (pg 28 - good we did that exercise in LEAD :)
• The article includes a nice literature review section mentioning the ERIAL project, Project information literacy report, and Foster's UG Research Project at U of Rochester. Previous studies of wayfinding assert successful navigation to: simple arrangements of building, visual access and open lines of sight, and lack of visual clutter.
• Their research questions: "what exactly helps student find items in the library and what are the fail points in navigating to location for know items?" Authors walk through their process of how they did the study and have nice charts of fail points and successful navigation (charts are worth viewing!). Basically students got 3 call #s and were told to "use any tools in the library they would normally use when looking for books" (aka could be catalog, a librarian, signs...)  The author/researchers followed the student on their trek, had the students verbalize their process aloud, made observations (these logs note how many times users had trouble with certain areas) and did a debrief afterwards ("what would have helped you find the items? what was the most challenging part of finding items? what helped you locate the items?")  The debrief helped to determine where the issues lie. From their study the library made some changes.
•  Interesting comments: 
  
  • students often used other books as context  for their search in the stacks - explains why research is often more difficult for students in a digital age 
  • the majority used library staff for help and found them helpful but some noted that having them more identifiable in the stacks would be helpful, or  way to ask for assistance from withing the stacks 
  • The students desired more better maps with a you are here would help in confusing/odd shelf areas  - perhaps instead of more maps, provide maps to a users mobile device; specially include fail points
  • they did not like the call #s system for DVDs especially - but several mentioned if would help to understand what the call #s meant (subject).
• Three conclusions for general patron wayfinding in stacks: 
  
  • easily identifiable sources of help - staff members where students will encounter fail points and/or wearing something identifiable to users; signs that identify sources in an inviting way
  • logical starting point - though we need/use our classification system to organize and find materials, users do not want this navigation and will find it confusing. They want a bookstore model. Find ways to add these concept in your library system
  • uniformity in signage - all end caps should be uniform in size and font  (end caps though not mentioned by the students in the study, observations actually showed they were used the majority of times) and consider increasing the size; visual consistency across all signs and help will benefit users.

• Methodology: 8 participants (7 grad students and a faculty member) completed a wayfinding test of 4 tasks, using an interactive map to get from one point to another within the building. Their eye movements were tracked with special glasses.
• A survey was also conducted but not discussed in depth here. One interesting finding: "participants rarely mention the help of physical wayfinding resources such as signs and directories" while mentioning library staff help more frequently.
• Useful points from the lit review:
  • It's important to identify and pay special attention to high-traffic areas in order to arrange wayfinding resources effectively in the environment.
  • 3 critical environmental aspects that impact wayfinding: visibility, layout complexity (total number of intersections and the connected paths in between), and connectivity ("axial links")
  • Importance of directories in entrance and exit areas. (Besides what's on the lobby kiosk we don't really have one near the entrance.)
• Findings:
  • Hesitation happens at major decision points in the route.
  • Interactive map design must address the usability issues related to IT literacy, indoor sense of direction.
  • "When areas are open to the public but look exclusive to certain people, signs may be needed to clarify."
  • "For rooms that are located further back and hidden, signs protruding from the wall may help."

Service Design allows for a HOLISTIC and SYSTEMATIC look at various systems that make a library function

Libraries are in a constant state of evolution as we adjust services to meet user needs with user centered design of services. Mainly has been focus on HCI but we are starting to shift toward services and spaces, using traditional anthropological analysis, ethnographic studies,  and assessment.  ISSUE: we tend to focu on bits & pieces of a user’s experience but not the entire service ecology. Service Design = whole user experience.

What is service:

• intangible interactions tied to experience

• does not result in ownership of anything

• unseen exchanges that happen everywhere

• closely tied to experiences hence highly personable

What is service design:

• studying the library as a whole - physical & virtual, service desks, touchpoints = service ecology

• co-creative process:  Library Design Team & stakeholders (Users +  Staff)

• goal: co-create or redefine services to meet or adjust to user expectations while working with frontline staff to deliver high quality services

Service design vs Participatory design

• both use a similar toolkit

• participatory design puts user at the beginning of the process to create a more usable end product/service; uses ethnographic research

• service design is the same BUT it diverges slightly in the approach to service -- service delivery is held in the center of the ecology/environment. Focuses on the delivery regardless of the actual service (that service could be physical space, website, databases, service desks, printing, etc - they all interact with each other and form the users overall experience. )

• EX:  circ services look at all parts - checking out a book involves walking into the library, searching the catalog, may be asking for help doing that, finding it in the stacks using signagen then interacting at the circ desk.....

Elements of Service Design:

• co-creation is key - balanced design team (reference, circ, tech, web etc)

• it's about finding solutions

• the team would start with 1-2 services and then seek to understand everything about it

• Create a User Working Group (UWG) that includes students of various levels, but could also be grad students, faculty, community users etc; can be short term on one project or a long term entity; also include other internal stakeholders depending on the service you are exploring

• create a stakeholder map (SEE figure 1)

• Beware of the devils advocate  - dont focus on the problems with the ideas before fulling seeking creative solutions

• a best practice is to understand the situation, compile possible solutions and ONLY THEN evaluate each idea for most viable and feasible.

• Touchpoints - from user and internal staff - anytime someone interacts or users a product or service

• Blueprinting - outlines the evidence for service delivery from layers visible to patrons and behind the scenes

• design ethnography and observation - could be 1:1 interviews, having UWG detail their interactions with library in a diary, respond to scenarios, or more formal interviews or focus groups type settings

• prototyping: from a sketch to a digital design to an actual physical piece; quick way to find problems in your ideas (IDEO)

• journaling -

3 phases

1. observation - the interviews, observations and documents, working with UWG, discover and refine problems and focus on characteristics and barriers; beyond walking and taking notes, might do space analysis; id who users are and their motivations and similarities; personas can be created; interviews in context where they are working

• space analysis

• interviews

• focus groups

• surveys

• personas
  
  
  

2. understanding and thinking - work with UWG to beding creating solutions and visualizing behaviors;  test solutions; gather ideas and document them (Note:  users may have great ideas but they do not understand the whole service ecology process to use internal stakeholders to investigate feasibility)

• diaries (maybe one day or over a week)

• customer journey maps

• scenarios buy UWG (to capture user process and measure gaps in expectations and service delivery)

• prototypes perhaps
  
  
  

3. implementing- create a service blueprint maps; highlight fail points in the entire process; start working with management at this point; helps fine tune touchpoints,