Books, Technology, and the Modern 70-year-old

An insights report created for the summer 2016 IDEO Insights to Innovation class.

Transcript

1. Books, Technology, and the Modern 70-year-old: An Insights Report Created by: Paul Demers
2. Challenge Summary: Contributors: How can we use technology to empower a modern 70-year at the library? Who were the participants that informed the insights in the report? • Library patrons • Librarians • Other library staff • An avid reader and budding technology enthusiast • My own feelings and observations via an empathy exercise
3. Insight #1 Librarians feel great happiness and fufillment when they interact with patrons to help them solve problems, explore new topics and discover new authors. Likewise, human interaction and physical contact with books are crucial elements in the success and enjoyment of a person’s visit to their local library.
4. A librarian at the local library branch on helping me find books on the history of dog breeds: “This is like an adventure, a scavenger hunt, that gets me up and out of my seat. I would much rather be doing this than sitting behind the desk and doing busywork!”
5. An avid reader and budding technology enthusiast on how he chooses books to read: “There is a certain feel of a book that has to be there for me to want to check it out and read it. Something about the texture of the paper, the typeface size and style, and the weight of the book really influences my choices.”
6. How library patrons find new books to read: “There is a certain feel of a book that has to be there for me to want to check it out and read it. Something about the texture of the paper, the typeface size and style, and the weight of the book really influences my choices.” How 70-year-olds find new books to read: • Librarian recommendations • Conversations with friends • Bookstore employees • New release shelf at the library • Staff picks at library or bookstore
7. Insight #2 New releases, staff picks, and community driven book recommendations are all extremely important in the library patron’s choice of which books to read next. These elements, while available, are not presented in ways that are quick and easy to interact with.
8. Hottest Books and New Books Flyers Every month, the library prints out flyers to showcase the hottest books as well as the newest movies and TV series and puts them on a table near the entrance. Showing only the cover, the library patron has very little information to allow them to explore the subject matter of the books and movies on these flyers.
9. Staff Recommendations The library staff creates a series of recommendations on the website that includes a book synopsis and links to check the book out in digital format. However, it is buried at the bottom of a sidebar on the website and isn’t highlighted in any way making it easy for a user to completely overlook.
10. Insight #3 There is a missed opportunity to interact with and engage readers at the book return slot located just ouside the main entrance of the library. We could offer suggestions for new books to read based on the ones they are returning using a "self serve" discovery kiosk that allows users to scan books and get recommendations.
11. The secondary action of 95% of people using the book return slot was to enter the library and look for new books to read. Most of them headed straight for the new releases section.
12. When the library is busy and there is no librarian available, visitors could use a secondary discovery method at the touch point where they are returning the books they have just finished.
13. Next Steps • Librarian interviews (What are the biggest challenges they face in recommending new books?) • More library patron interviews. (What would make their discovery and exploration easier?) • Plan and prototype a discovery app for use by library staff and library patrons that provides a discovery mechanism based on a library visitor’s past reading, authors, topics, etc. • Plan and prototype a self serve discovery mechanism to be used by library patrons at the book dropoff just outside the library’s main entrance. • User testing, iteration, design, build, test, repeat.