“Observe how users approach information, consider what it means, and design to allow them to achieve what they need.”“…I thought it important to highlight that one aspect of designing for users was to understand the ways in which they may approach an information task.” (Donna Maurer 2006)

Studying the information needs of users and the organization not only helps to direct library services and programs, but also to determine how to plan for marketing the resources of the library. Assessing our users’ needs has to be a priority and that the library should remain relevant to the objectives of the organization. Once user needs have been established, the library can begin to communicate back to users about the library’s response to these needs.

The best way to understand the needs of the library users is to listen to their requests and get to know them as individuals. Librarians tend to provide customers with information or services that they think is needed or in a convenient format. Instead, real needs rather than perceived needs should be recognized and accommodated. Recognize the client as an individual and offer customized services based on individual information needs. Customers only care about getting the results they think are most useful and economical for them. Finding out what user priorities and agenda are will get the library attention; promoting the things loved and valued by librarians will not (Varnum, 2007).

As Wilson (2000) puts it”…take the user as focus of interest, rather than the system.” He further states that, since the 1980s there has been a shift towards a “person-centred” approach rather than a “system-centred” approach. J.D. Bernal, a noted scientist and a Professor of Physics at Birkbeck College state in his paper that “…a knowledge of the requirements of the different users of scientific information and the use to which they wish to put the information they secure should be the ultimate determining factor in the designing of methods of storage and retrieval of scientific information.”

In the current situation, new electronic information systems may provide users with easier, more intuitive means of searching. Information searching through the web will “strike a middle ground between pure natural language relevance ranking systems and Boolean searching.” But still librarians play an important role in aiding users to navigate between information needs and information resource systems.” (Wielhorski, 1994).

While information found on web-based media increasingly becomes overwhelming, much is redundant or irrelevant leading to user’s struggle and frustration. Information in web sites is traditionally structured and presented based on web site’ goals and contents, it may or may not match with user goals or search behaviors. Actual user need and behavior in relation to information-seeking tasks on web-based media has to be considered. It brings together the collective developments in web design knowledge, continuously expanding web technology, with user-centered approaches to accommodate increasing demand, and improve user experience and satisfaction (Sawasdichai, 2004).

In order to provide good information service, it is important to understand user’s true needs and how they go about searching for information. The study of information needs and information seeking behavior provides an understanding necessary to design better service tools, identify training needs of the library staff and enable information searchers to satisfy their information goals. Let the information user define the resources, not let the information provider assume they know what is needed.

Computers are supposed to make our lives easier, not more difficult. As usability-conscious designers, we can make our users’ lives easier by thinking about the way people interact with our websites, provide clear direction, and then putting the burden of sorting out the details in the hands of the computers, let computers handle the information reformatting-not the users. (Cacha, 2008)

References

Cacha, Lleuve. “User Centered Interface Design: Users, Interactions and Experiences.” Lecture notes in User Needs and Behavior, FCSIT, University of Malaya, March 2008.

Maurer, Donna comment on “Four modes of seeking information and how to design for them,” The Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design blog, comment posted March 14, 2006. http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/four_modes_of_seeking_information_and_how_to_design_for_them

Donna Maurer is a free-lance information architect and interaction designer. She has been designing structures and interfaces for websites, intranets, web applications and business tools professionally.

Sawasdichai, Napawan. User goal-based approach to information search and structure on web site. PhD diss. Illinois Institute of Technology. 2004[available from Proquest database: http://www.proquest.umi.com] Wielhorski, Karen “Teaching Remote users how to use electronic Information Resources.” The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 5, no. 4 (1994): 5-20.

This is a refereed article from The Public-Access Computer Systems Review. It is an electronic journal that is distributed on the Internet and on other computer networks.

Wilson, T.D. Human Information Behavior. Special Issue on Information Science Report, 3, no. 2 (2000): 49-55. Available from http://inform.nu/articles/Vol3/v3n2p49-56.pdf (accessed March 23, 2008).

Abstract: This paper provides a history and overview of the field human information behavior, including recent advances in the field and multidisciplinary perspectives.

 

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