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Connecting: Interaction Design and User Experience

Ahniwa Ferrari /

Connecting from Microsoft Design on Vimeo.

If you have 18 minutes, this thought-provoking video is well worth exploring. As a video about technology, it remains focused on interactivity with and among people, and talks about ways we will be able to use tools to be more interactive and more connected to each other.

Ideas that relate to libraries:

  • Communities start locally, and then can build up to something greater. If people are using media / tools / games to connect and be interactive in your local area, is there a space there for the library to facilitate those connections and be a focal point of that community?
  • The internet of things is about objects that share information. This could be your houseplant telling you it needs water, or it could be books in the library sharing how often they're read, what other books people often check out with them, or just reminding you of their due dates.
  • Digital keeps trying to emulate analog, i.e. digital interfaces try and use an analog metaphor so that they will look familiar to users. This is becoming less useful, and it sounds like the more we move away from these metaphors and push the value of the content (rather than the chrome) the better off we will be.

Libraries are about interaction. The user experience is central. They build communities. They are well-positioned in many ways to be at the hub of this kind of experience, bringing people together with information and with each other in meaningful ways.