[Web4lib] RE: library automation vendors

[David Walker]

>> Usability is HARD.

I agree completely!

Designing a good, usable interface takes a lot of work, requires some
hefty skills and a deep understanding of end-user needs and goals.
(Note that I said all this in my previous e-mail.)

The thing is that I don't know too many vendors who have talented
information architects and interaction designers working on their
systems.  Nor is it likely that the engineers and programmers who
actually do "design" (and I use that term loosely) these interfaces ever
spend much time interacting with actual library end-users.

It's not that vendors don't want to design good interfaces.  They simply
can't, or at least haven't proven that they can.

We in libraries have four distinct advantages over vendors:

(1) Libraries can hire interaction designers and information architects
to do this task.  That's feasible even for mid-sized academic libraries.

(2) At the local library, we actually interact with end-users on a daily
basis.  We understand them, even if we don't always appreciate their
point of view.  We can do regular usability tests with our users and
make updates to our API-based systems whenever we see fit, instead of
having to "lobby" vendors for years to "fix" problems.

(3) It's ultimately more economical and sustainable to design an
interface against an XML-based API than to have to mess with
vendor-supplied interfaces, in which even minor customizations are
vulnerable to upgrade incompatibilities.  We're separating the
presentation layer from the application layer.

(4) We can share our ideas and code with each other in open source
communities, allowing even technology-poor libraries to benefit from
those who have the ability to build these systems.

--Dave

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David Walker
Web Development Librarian
Library
Cal State San Marcos
760-750-4379
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