Designing the Digital Experience

You can’t just think about website redesign. There is no website, my friends. The catalog, anything you offer as digitized information online, your site, any streams of content, all of those are aspects of your digital presence – they are each touch points for your users. The best design stays out of the users’ way and allows them to have a good experience.
Interestingly, even in systems, it all goes back to human emotions. There are so many ways to feel bad about oneself, to feel stressed, disconnected and alienated both from one another and from organizations like the library. Our job as webmasters is to ensure a positive experience for the user.
Beyond getting out of the users’ way, experience design considers how an organization can provide fulfillment of a sort to users. A great example that David Lee King used, both in his preso today and his excellent new book (which I did buy, got signed by him (hurrah!) and am already halfway through) – Designing the Digital Experience, is the difference between going to MacDonald’s and going to Applebee’s. They both fulfill a basic need. But the latter implies a treat, an experience, an evening out, a social event, not just getting a burger.
There’s so much more to this than I can get down tonight. But in the interest of getting a post up for you, here are my raw notes from David Lee King’s talk this AM on Designing the Digital Experience:
Designing the digital Experience
David Lee King,
Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
Digital branch manager
Davidleeking.com
- Experience Economy, Piens - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0875848192/bookstorenow57-20
- Marketing folks want you to create a 1-pg statement of experience wanted
Community path to experience design:
- Conversations taking place, formal, side converations, q&a – digitally how would that look?
- Where are conversations already being held
- Not just connecting with librarians, but with one another
- Invitations – passive & active – invite to comment – ask a question, for example?
- Different roles – content enablers, creators – we have to be good writers; web tool enablers
- Allowing commenting, not moderating, unless doing it promptly; if moderating comments gotta be quick or its not a conversation
- Participation – if no participation, no community
- Sense of familiarity – do you feel that you know your org through digital presence (provides fodder for conversation) – give patrons a sense of organizational familiarity
- Telling our stories:
o Who are you as an individual? As an organization? what are your creds? What shortcuts do you take (share them)?
o People want to participate in your story
o Twitter allows an experience of community
o Ustream – live stream of event with chat
- Our goal, hold convos, create community, participate
- How can libraries do like Starbucks
o Preshow: book review on website
o Postshow: discussion of book
o Help people meet others (through library)
o Extending physical experience into digital space in way not really possible in physical space
Customer Journey Mapping:
- Map out “touch points” – where customer interacts with organization – insights into customer needs & their experience of the organization
- Provides customer focus
- Library catalogs
- If going to build a new website - DON'T LOOK AT OTHER LIBRARY WEBSITES!!!!
WHAT NEXT:
- Connect with the customer – connect them to org, to your digital presence in an omnipresent way (ala Google connex) – our product = info
- Connect customers with one another
- Create an experience stage – work/play experience blog:
o “Your customers’ touch points are your stage set…”
- We can train to “write for participation”
Patron usage has gone up because Topeka-Shawnee pays attention to these considerations