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I think, where budgets allow, this is an increasingly common function / position. I am a Front End Librarian and I oversee development, user experience, and content strategy. I am part of systems but I liaise most often with our Marketing Department [because we have one ... ]. My friend Amanda is literally the User Experience Librarian at the Darien Library, so this is a thing with precedent. I agree with one of the other commenters that a dedicated UX person makes a world of difference - and, honestly, it's probably better if that person is less librarian than not. The big hurdle we've had to jump across was coming to grips that our librarians aren't users, so their weigh-in on content and services is skewed toward the jargon-y, mega-search-fields, we're-not-google-and-we-are-proud opinion. Staying on top of usability, accessibility, content strategy, dev, and performance [because a fast website is integral to a good user experience] is a full-time job. It's the kind of job you do outside of the 40-hour week. If you can get away with it, don't bundle this stuff in with other major roles. Organizationally, this person or team should be afforded a little bit of autonomy from the other departments. Design committees--especially in higher-ed--are power struggles, and it benefits no one when the user-experience people/person can be pressured into bad design decisions. Oh, and pay them well :) :) :). // Michael! I write about the web and front-end librarianship at www.ns4lib.com -----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ken Varnum Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 12:00 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Usability Person? We are exceptionally fortunate to have a 3-person User Experience department to support the developers who work on the website, the catalog, the digital library, and the repository. http://www.lib.umich.edu/library-information-technology/user-experience-department -- Ken Varnum | Web Systems Manager | MLibrary - University of Michigan - Ann Arbor [log in to unmask] | @varnum | http://www.lib.umich.edu/users/varnum | 734-615-3287 On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 11:51 AM, Tom Cramer <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > We have been lucky to have a full time interaction designer within our > library IT group for about 6 years. It makes a world of difference in > the quality of our products; it also helps with letting the engineers > focus on engineering, and the librarians focus on being librarians > (rather than trying to design for patrons). > > - Tom > > > On Oct 30, 2013, at 8:24 AM, Andrew Darby wrote: > > > Hello, all. This is perhaps a bit off-topic, but I was wondering > > how > many > > of you have a dedicated usability person as part of your development > team. > > Right now, we have a sort of ad hoc Usability Team, and I'd like to > > make > a > > pitch for hiring someone who will have the time and inclination to > > manage this effort more effectively. > > > > Anything you'd care to share (on-list or off-) would be welcome. > > I'm especially curious about whether or not this is a full-time > responsibility > > for someone in your organization or if it's shared with another job > > function; if you find this position is working out well or you wish > > you'd spent the money on more robots instead; where this person > > resides in your org chart; what sort of qualifications you looked for when hiring; etc. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Andrew > > > > -- > > Andrew Darby > > Head, Web & Emerging Technologies > > University of Miami Libraries >