I had the pleasure of touring North Carolina State University’s Hunt Library last week with some colleagues. We went there to tour their public spaces that support learning and collaboration and we saw some really great stuff – from flexible DIRTT walls to gaming studios to modular, wired furniture. Trust me, the joint is as cool and amazing and inspirational as everything you’ve heard.
Amidst all of the innovative spaces we saw, though, my biggest takeaway was an piece of paper tacked up in a staff area:
I love every single thing about this.
I love the use of the word practice, because that’s what these are. Each of these behaviors must be learned, honed, practiced. I love the format that echoes a checklist. Indeed, if every interaction with a user include each of these items, both staff and user will walk away satisfied. I love how each item on the list is phrased in a memorable way – Share the Screen. Stand in Their Shoes. Refer Right. Stated this way, these best practices can easily become catch phrases and readily become mantras and therefore easily become practices.
I’ve spent the last year learning about the UX mindset and framework. As I’ve written about previously, one of the first things that I grasped was that UX is really about empathy. Empathy – considering what the experience of our users is like from their point of view – is what moves UX from just a focus on customer service to a commitment to delivering great customer experiences. The more that libraries can move beyond customer service to considering customer experience, the better we – and our users – will be.
And at its heart, that’s what this list is all about – empathy. Standing in their shoes. Walking them where they need to go. Speaking their language, not ours. These in particular remind me of what UX expert extraordinaire Aaron Schmidt has printed on pencils:
I love that UX sprung forth from the world of tech and web design and has spread into service design and delivery and all touchpoints. And I love that the world famous, high tech library that I went to visit blew me away with this empathetic, user centered approach to its service.
658.8 - Marketing, Management, Leadership, Libraries 
What does “refer right” mean? Three library staff have been gathered around a computer trying to figure this out, I assume it’s a training phrase that isn’t used in our library.
I’m guessing it means that before you hand someone off to another dept or staff person, you confirm that they can indeed help the user accomplish what they are trying to accomplish. Referring right in this sense would reduce frustration for the user and get them correctly and quickly hooked up with the right dept.