Scriblio Usability Review
To ensure that Scriblio development is meeting the needs of the majority of library users who often have little or no experience with libraries, we approached usability consultant Robert Hoekman, Jr. to perform an expert usability review of the software. Lamson Library’s implementation was selected as the object of the review because the library offers a rich set of supporting online services and the site is running the most current code. Though the Lamson site looks very different from an out of the box implementation of Scriblio, the way the system works and the way the data is presented to the user is the same. Certain aspects of the Lamson site, such as the live reference chat, are dependent on individual libraries, but we offer the implementation and integration of those features as demonstrated at the Lamson site as an example of what is achievable in Scriblio implementations elsewhere.
Hoekman is the founder of Miskeeto, a product development and web design consultancy, and author of Designing the Obvious and the forthcoming Designing the Moment, both from New Riders Press.
In his review, Hoekman has identified details that may need improvement, but he also offered overall praise for the project:
Scriblio succeeds in a number of areas where current alternatives fail. It is not only one of the best library systems on the web, it is one of the better e-commerce and knowledgebase systems. […]
OPAC developers everywhere should study Scriblio, learn from it, and start meeting the bar that Scriblio has set.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
[…] this. I’ve appreciated Hoekman’s insight since I heard him speak at WordCamp. Later, his usability review of Scriblio offered some valuable insights and lessons that have me hoping to tap his talent for another […]