For a bit short of a year, I worked at the Ann Arbor District Library as an Information Desk Clerk. It may seem like an odd thing to for me to discuss, but the reason I worked there, and the reason I mention it here, are both quite deliberate. At the School of Information, where I received my Masters of Science in Information, there are a number of specialization tracks you can take as a student depending on your career objectives. Once you’ve completed the foundation courses, you head down this track and rarely catch a glimpse at the coursework or students in alternate tracks. For me, as a Human-Computer Interaction student, I wanted to go into the field of user-centered design and information architecture but I also wanted a more holistic view of information science in general. With this in mind, I thought there was plenty to be learned from Archives and Libraries that could ultimately make me a better HCI professional.
From courses taken in Archives, I gained a great deal of insight into the value and uses of records, both electronic and physical. I learned about the complexities and intricacies of managing records and the challenges that are faced now and will become all the more critical in the coming years. We will struggle to find solutions for versioning, migration, and adapting to changing uses and expectations. At the same time, there are an infinite number of possibilities in digital records. They will become more mutable, portable, and reconstituted to offer new meaning and value.
The experience I gained working at the AADL was more on a user level. Interacting with patrons at the library, seeing their interaction with the library’s website and catalog, and providing computer support, made me appreciate how I can never again think of myself as a typical end user. I don’t consider myself a computer whiz, but working with patrons of the library made me realize just how frustrating technology can be. Watching them struggle with common tasks revealed to me how much farther we have to go in developing user-friendly interfaces. While these sorts of observations can be made in usability tests, having an ongoing and less defined interaction with a wider range of people revealed high level patterns of concern.
As Kim Goodwin of Cooper says, “the experience is the product.” Working often with patrons of varying degrees of computer literacy and educational and professional backgrounds, helped adjust my perspective considerably. It has made me appreciate the importance of making a product that not only satisfies an informational need but leaves the user with a positive experience, and for that alone I found my time at the AADL invaluable.
