[WEB4LIB] Re: In defense of stupid users

[Pons, Lisa (ponslm)]

>KG Schneider wrote: "...in which case you grudgingly toss a keyword search
box their 
>way and spend your time designing complex interfaces only a librarian could

>love, or you could approach the problem with the idea that the user is 
>filled with information about how we should design our services. Making a 
>service usable by your users without them acquiring separate, special 
>knowledge is not dumbing down the system, it's smartening it up. "
 
I think I will use this quote as we move forward with redesigning our opac
interface.
 
A group at our library recently made recommendations on this redesign, and
their recommendation for the main page is one main search box , a search
button below that.... and then three more drop-down boxes where users can
choose from different limiting items, etc...
 
The reason given for this was that- you've heard it before,-"we dont want to
dumb it down, we need to teach people how to use this effectively." They
hope to do this through information literacy workshops etc...
 
A colleague made this analogy to some of these folks to help them understand
why this isnt a good approach:
 
-We've had people clammoring to be able to edit their own content on our web
site for a few years. At one point, we purchased several copies of
Dreamweaver and had three 2 hour sessions on using it. Finally, there was a
revolt, and people said Dreamweaver wouldnt work, it was just too
complicated for the simple editing of content they wanted to do.
 
We then purchased Contribute, again scheduled and prepared 8 hours worth of
training workshops.... and this has worked well, because people say it is
more appropriate for the task they want: they want to edit content, not
create html from scratch.
 
So, now we point out to them that it is the same for users: they dont
necessarily want to learn how to be an information professional, they just
want to find the material they need for their project, paper, etc...
 
Of course, we do recognize that there are those users that want to use
Dreamweaver and learn more, and in this same way, I think libraries must
accomodate both the user who desires more searching skills, but also the one
who does not desire this. 
 
I think the "simple searcher" is very underserved for the most part.... and
that is, at least for us, where the challenge will lie in our redesign,
etc...
 
Lisa Pons-Haitz
University of Cincinnati