9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Discovery systems offer the current best hope of a single search across disparate library sources and seamless delivery of content. As such, they have become a nearly ubiquitous feature of library homepages. The simple search form presented on our pages exist in a complicated environment. Discovery systems must smoothly interact with the library and organizational websites, OPACs, patron accounts, OpenURL resolvers, and learning management systems, and work well on a slew of devices, browsers, and operating systems. The complexity of discovery ecosystems creates significant UX challenges. This workshop examines user experience across all of these systems, considering where libraries may fall short of creating a quality discovery UX. It introduces UX methods and guides participants through applying the techniques to discovery ecosystems. It covers the state of the discovery ecosystem, ecosystem mapping, assessing usability of local discovery ecosystem by applying a variety of usability tests, and more. While this workshop focuses on UX techniques and applying them to the discovery ecosystem, it is complementary with the afternoon workshop, Hacking Discovery for Better UX, which delves into discovery tool back-end systems, implementing changes, and applying hacks to improve discovery UX.
