Elements of UX: A Librarian's Guide to User Experience Design

If you're feeling gutsy, try this with your users. If you're not ready for that, try it with colleagues (see below for a few alternative prompts).

Prompt for patrons:

• Think of an experience, service, or tool (computer, wireless connection, printer, etc.) you use at the library.
• Imagine it's a person.
• Spend ten minutes writing a love letter, or a breakup letter, to that person.
• Optional (but fun!): Send a video where you read it out loud to us!

Librarian-anthropologist Donna Lanclos invited students at UNC Charlotte to do this for the campus library. Take a look at what they love, and what they could live without. (Hat tip to Deirdre Costello for sharing this with us!)

Collecting Love and Breakup Letters at @atkinslibrary attn @UNCCGeese @UNCCProblems pic.twitter.com/hULNkP758j

— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) February 10, 2016

If you want to try this with co-workers before taking it out in the field, here's some alternative things to write a love or breakup letter to:

• Workshop, lecture, exhibit, etc. at a conference
• Grocery or clothing store (physical or online)
• Your internet or phone provider
• Your library's website
• Going to a doctor's appointment
• Public transportation, booking a flight or hotel, or another travel experience

• How do others perceive the experience, service, or tool they wrote about? How does that differ from your own (or the library's) perspective?
• What do people value most?
• What frustrates them?
• What should you try to fix or improve right away?
• How can you use personal stories to promote services or programs that are working well?