Say Yes to Users

Hee hee - I've been wanting to use that title for a while. It sounds so ... evangelical.

Becoming more user-centred has been a meme on the biblioblogosphere for a while. As of next week we're going to be running some Focus groups which (I hope) will help us become more user-centred in terms of our web pages.

At the beginning of the year our marketing team created us a new "front page". We then created a bunch of pages "below" it. The layout and structure of the pages were the subject of intense scrutiny and discussion by the folks here. You can imagine the frank discussion that went on when you get a bunch of passionate librarians all with their own opinions about What Our Students Want!

Now, 5 months later, we are actually going to ask our students what they want.

I'm supposed to be running most of these focus groups which will begin next week. I'm a little nervous about it since it's the first time I've done this and all the literature I've read says (in tones of doom), that the focus group moderator should be experienced. Well, thats all very well if you've got the budget to hire someone. We don't, so they get me. Ha!

It will be interesting to say the least. If we get any students from our recruitment. So far we have the grand sum of 3.

I think I need chocolate.