NISO conference talk: From somewhat awful to pretty great for librarians, a new e-commerce tool

A talk given during NISO’s conference “The user experience: Just fix it” in January 2022. Slides (PDF)

We started building an e-commerce tool for librarians to license individual eBooks. The first version was partly good, partly awful.

So we learned more about, and mapped, the acquisition process in libraries. And we created a vision for how the system could fit into that library process. Then we chose a small piece to start with, designed and usability tested a solution with amazing librarians, and built it. We were one step closer to the vision – the system worked better for librarians.

So we learned more about the library process, updated the map, chose the next thing to fix, and got that developed. And then we repeated. And repeated. We keep on repeating. And the system is becoming pretty great.

The tools we use have evolved over time. Much inspiration has come from Teresa Torres who is a master at mapping, and from Jared Spool who is a UX vision wizard.

I hope you can take some of the tools we use and bring them into your org. Because all systems can become awesome to use. A little at a time.

Interaction design: The Bolibompa dragon

Part 13 of 13 in the series Some of my skills.

All adults know that dragons giggle when they are tickled. But many kids have not found that out yet. So we in the Bolibompa team set out to build a digital dragon who kids relate to and whom they want to tickle! A Ticklish Mission.

Design research: How we 3 to 5 year olds behave

Part 12 of 13 in the series Some of my skills.

Sure, we are individuals. But when we are given an iPad many of us behave quite predictably. We always relax ... and are always active.

Design optimization: An A/B test that made me change my mind

Part 11 of 13 in the series Some of my skills.

My colleagues wanted to change the look and content of an important part of Barnplay.se. I thought the current one was better and set out to check whether their or my variant resulted in more taps and views. Via an A/B test they proved me wrong (which I love).

Welcome to my brain