Archives for posts with tag: websites

Rule of Thirds

My weekly update came from LinkedIn today. Nowhere on the internet is a profile I more readily let languish. I’m not the only one.

Most of us are begrudgingly committed to LinkedIn because of the ongoing buzz as a job seach tool. Following the advice of the Internet, I need to spend that 45 minutes and update my LinkedIn profile. Afterall, not much looks worse these days than an out of date profile.

And, then what?

I find it hard to invest time in a social media tool that makes me feel like I need a tie and my interview face to use it. Not to mention, where do I find the time for it amongst my professional and personal responsibilities.

I’m not a full-time social media guru, after all. Like a lot of information professional, social media is important, but only one part of my professional reality. So, I’ve been thinking about a social media strategy that could work for me (and maybe you, too). Read the rest of this entry »

A lonely man on the four square field.

A random lonely man on the four square field.

The below infographic has been bumping around (It came to me via Stephen’s Lighthouse, who got it here.).

four square growing

It’s good news for Four Square. Is it good news for us? Is it yet another social media time drain we have to adopt to survive online?

At the moment, I personally don’t really get Four Square. Why would someone want to be mayor of a retail outlet, like Starbucks or wherever?

In that light, Four Square looks like a thin game layer draped over an overt marketing carrot-and-stick. Looking at the top check-ins that the infographic lists, it’s clear that Four Square wants to make sure businesses see the value.

Four Square could be a new outlet for vacuos, vain consumer culture. But, that’s what people we were saying about Twitter a couple short years ago.

As one friend noted, Egyptians are using the Internet to free their country and we’re using it to show we went to Wendy’s. That’s the point. It took a few years for people to find ways to do such impressive things with  Twitter and Facebook.

I may not start my Four Square account this weekend. I’m still not completely sold on Twitter (but it’s growing on me). There is a part of me that will try anything (at least for a while) once I have the time.

Should libraries get in on Four Square?

There are so many competing social media demands, that taking on a new platform can drain other efforts. It’s important to weigh the cost/benefits of getting involved and to develop a manageable, adaptable, and achievable strategy.

Librarians are already hatching ideas and talking about it.

 

Map of London

Hand-drawn map of London by Stephen Welter

The New York Public Library hosted a neat looking panel today.

Future Library: Socializing History with Maps, Hosted by The New York Public Library

Event Description:

Speakers:

  • Matt Knutzen, Geospatial Librarian at the New York Public Library
  • Alex Rainert, Head of Product at Foursquare
  • Jesse Friedman, Product Marketing Manager at Google Maps and Earth
  • Jack Eichenbaum, Queens Borough Historian[NYPL’s event listing]

It’s a shame when you hear about something interesting, and it’s too late, and it’s in another country. Where are the teleporters, already? Science, I’m looking at you

Moving on, it’s exciting to imagine maps being used like wikis.  It’s a field that has largely been dominated by businesses and advertising, but there is a lot of potential here for less commercial uses. OpenStreetMap is an open source project already doing this.

Other popular free(but not commercial free) resources, like Google Maps or Bing’s equivalent, can be an underused tools for pushing community information out to library users and visitors.

Imagine walkable or bikeable tours you could follow via smart phone, with info links, archival photos galleries, recorded personal testimonials, and other information. Online maps can be turned passing on community knowledge that is often lost or fragmented by .

Or arts walks. Or even digitally augmented literary scavenger hunts combining geo-caching and book releases.

Like most web-based tools, I’m pretty sure the most en-genius ideas haven’t been thought of yet. The opportunity is there for any locally minded persons who want to plant a few flags in the digital world.

Also, how cool would it be to be a Geospatial Librarian. I want one of those business cards!

***Addendum***

Stephen Welter’s portfolio site. Why not promote the analog approach?

A great little info-graphic from Information is Beautiful (my favourite info-design site):

But, this is not necessarily a new concept (from the I.is B. post).

This structure has been around for a while. (In fact does anyone knows who first came up with it?). The only new thing is relating it to visuals. And giving it a nice font.

One interesting thing. If you visualise information without designing it, you often end up with a mush or a meaningless thicket.

A lot of times, as part of the reference process, “information” and “data” are considered enough to meet user needs, leaving the higher levels of the triangle to the user’s discretion.

As librarians increasingly become moderators or brokers of information, staking a claim on those higher tiers may be worthwhile. Information design can do a lot to achieve this.

Libraries are in the information sharing business, so considering how we present information visually is pretty important. I’m a big fan on the role design can play in representing complex ideas. The ability to take raw information and make it informative is something that makes good information design invaluable.

It may seem like a superficial concern, but information design is going to be more and more relevant.

The list is the simplest and most ubiquitous tool for returning information to users (be it via search engine, OPAC, or written lists of suggested titles).  Even tag clouds are essential elaborate lists, but they are moves in the right direction.

The drive towards the semantic web (one day, maybe?) will lead to increased  expectations from users.  Search tools and providers will  have to consider more complex and subtle contextual inputs. Because the results themselves will be increasingly nuanced, the dynamics of how this information is presented will be crucial.

I’ve really no idea about how this will turn out. But, since search engine results are essentially laid out the same now as in the 90s, I’d be open to any sort of evolution.

latte everywhere

Next week, I start a new job in a government library. As I bid farewell to the multi-national mega-chain retail cafe, I want to write a few posts about customer service and library user experience.

There was a recent Globe and Mail article about choice and customer experience. It boiled down to this:

A myth I often deal with is: “Our customers want lots of choices, and the ability to customize.”…

Big consumer myth No. 2 relates to customization, specifically to companies believing that customers want to customize products. This myth is tied directly back to the logic around consumer choice limitation as a good thing…

Offering your customers more choices, whether in products or features, and the ability to customize will likely not do them, or you, any favours. Having the courage to limit choice, and taking the time to create a personalization path, can create a more favourable customer experience, and may just increase your sales.[full article here]

Are libraries embracing too much customisation? Is this interfering with user experience?

Read the rest of this entry »