Last fall, I took a course called, “Knowledge Media Design for Learning,” (based in the Knowledge Media Design Institute) and it has had made me thinking about design ever since. When I think design, I still think of things like architecture or customer design. I even think of “design people” working in offices with lots of glass, thinking up great ideas. This course (and some subequent reading and reflection) help hepled me understand that design is an approach to life and work. Some versions I’ve read of design thinking are vague or not original, but I am still only exploring the field. The concept stresses flexibility, creativity and the potential to make work more satisfying and productive.
In reading, Academic Librarianship By Design: A Blended Librarian’s Guide to the Tools and Technologies by Steven J. Bell and John D. Shank (American Library Association, 2007):
The ability to put oneself in the place of the user of the product or service in order to understand how the user can receive the optimal learning experience.
A willingness to thoughtfully and creatively move through a series of gradual changes in developing a product or service and use this prototyping method to arrive an optimal experience for the user.
A commitment to both formative and summative evaluation in determining how well a product or service meets the needs of the user, and then making the necessary adjustments to improve the performance of that product or service to ensure a good library or learning experience for the user.
The second chapter of the book, “The Blended Librarian in Action: Applying Design Thinking to Academic Librarianship,” has proven to be an interesting read so far. It also charts the spread of design thinking from its origins in industry and architecture to many other fields, such as business (e.g. the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management is keen on the idea of business design). Some of the design principles quoted above strike me as obvious and natural, so I want to read and think about this further. Trying to understand systems, services and products from the side of the user is more challenging than it sounds. It is still something I want to think about more. One way to apply this these principles would be to focus on experience or service rather than product. Doing that would require much more testing and feedback, but it strikes me as worthwhile.
I’ve also recently found the Designing Better Libraries blog which has quite a few interesting ideas and suggestions. Thinking about this topic has reminded me of a point covered in the Information Architecture class I took last fall: label design. Deciding what we call things can be tricky. When professionals use the phrase “information literacy” does that make sense to non-specialists? I wonder the same thing about providing assistance for tools such as RefWorks or Write-N-Cite. Label design can cross over into marketing too. Students (and other people) are pressed for time – why should somebody spend the time to learn what those tools are AND how these tools are better to other methods of managing such information? Is there a better way to write a label for such things?
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