Uncovering hidden needs through participatory design
It wasn’t until seven years into my career as a user experience (UX) librarian that I realized I’d been accidentally excluding a sizable segment of users from my user research. I’d conducted many interviews, deployed many surveys, and completed a zillion usability studies, but there was one major weak spot in my UX tool belt. These methods favor people who are gifted at oral and written communication. What about people who are more gifted at visual communication?
Enter participatory design. In the context of user research, this method invites participants to design their own response to a given prompt. We might invite patrons to sketch their ideal reading room or a new online catalog interface, for example. Because we’re relying on a different communication mode than in interviews and surveys, we have the chance to reveal user needs not expressed elsewhere.
Read the whole post on Libtech Insights →
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I pen occasional posts for LibTech Insights, a blog about technology in academic libraries from Choice, an ACRL/ALA publisher.