Jennifer Arnott › Likes

Time for a conversation about UX and usability and universal design? If her program is anything like my program, part of the point of the practicum is to learn to work with real-world constraints (including your boss hating all that stuff you just did and thinking it's badly broken). If you can lay out *why* it's broken, and/or point her at important things to read or even terms to search, you'll be helping her, not hurting her. - Marianne

(This isn't relevant to your problem, exactly, but I've decided user-friendly design is really HARD, mostly because of the number of times I've seen people at loggerheads with each other about which-one-is-better, both coming purely from a user-friendliness set of assumptions.) - Marianne

Thanks Marianne. That's exactly what I have to do. She made it all shocking green! She made everything have subpages, and the top tab just says "this section has books" in some cases! And, she completely misunderstood the nature of the stuff she added in, not to mention audience. Damn damn damn. She's been working on this all semester and doing ok but not great. This is just.... a massive hours dump of crap! - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

Training interns/student assistants takes a lot of time. Our director doesn't always get that more hands =/= more productivity. But, you're doing this student a disservice if you don't train her how to do libguides correctly. That's part of the practicum. - Anne Graham

Yes, tell her. Better she hear this NOW than when her job is on the line. You may also want to contact the practicum supervisor with a heads-up; you can even ask for advice. I don't think you have to fail her on the practicum or anything, not yet, but a pretty hardcore "argh, no!" accompanied by "read this and apply it" is 100% appropriate. - RepoRat

I wussed out a little :( I always do that, say what's wrong, but soften/weaken it by blaming myself for not doing a better job at explaining. - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

That's okay; I do it too, partly because it lowers ppl's "I suck OMG" barriers to learning. - RepoRat

thanks. She's generally been a bit listless, not a go-getter. When I asked if she wanted to spend some time fixing it (she's done with her hours) she looked really uncomfortable. That's a big part of why I wussed -- she wasn't the kind of student who *wants* to know what they did wrong, so they can fix it and do it better. - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

Anne, the time was the hard part. We weren't sure how many hours this project would take (they get 25 hours for a project), and I think now it's a much bigger project than the time allocated. She did learn a lot about libguides. She didn't so much learn a lot about thinking-like-the-user. (and the other 75 of her hours were on a reference point, under a different supervisor) - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

Dorothea, I;m realizing I'm entirely self trained on question-your-assumptions, think-like-the-user :) Do you have a couple off the top of your head recommendations for reading? - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

the "colour" and "layout" sections of http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/book... perhaps? - RepoRat

if you can lay hands on Steve Krug's _Don't Make Me Think!_ it can also be an eye-opener. :) - RepoRat

(oi, I hate Don't Make Me Think!) - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

rly? I dig it. :) Perhaps _The Non-Designer's Design Book_, then, and/or Rosenfeld and Morville's polar-bear book. - RepoRat

Thanks! Added them to the prof. dev. colleciton "to buy" list, along with The Non-Designer's Presentation Book! - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

I had to sign in just to double-suggest the Non-Designer's Design Book -- it has such clear examples, in my view. And the Psychology of Everyday Things changed the way I look at the physical world. Although the title is now actually the Design of Everyday Things: http://www.amazon.com/Design-... - Amandadon't

#ReadAllTheseLinksAtWorkTomorrow! - awd

Rudi - I can't begin to tell you how much this line made me cringe: "she wasn't the kind of student who *wants* to know what they did wrong, so they can fix it and do it better." That...well, it's not a good sign. - Katy S

Yeah. As we have worked together over the past couple of months, I've noticed this in her. But it was crystal clear at that meeting. She felt sheepish about, and would fix it if I made her, But she didn't care, and she was *done*. Sad. - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

Heck, Saklad is a legend among library folks who've been on the internet too long---and elsewhere, for that matter. He still seems to show up from time to time on LISNews, although most of us have learned to ignore him. And, y'know, if I have to choose between Saklad and Dan SafeLibraries, I think I'd take Saklad. - Walt Crawford

Walt, no argument there. - Rachel Walden