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February 23, 2007

User control and user happiness

Usercontrolone How much control should our users have? -- so asks Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users.  The conclusion: users need control, but not too much control--which results in the same negative results as not too much control does.  Sierra writes:

We shut down when we're faced with too many choices, even when those choices are about relatively simple things.

How does this apply to library services?  All sorts of ways... 

We should have library account access online that lets users customize certain things: the way they get notices, what they get notices of, what their landing page looks like...  Should we stop there or keep going?

We should let users customize their experiences when they access our online library resources too--but again, how much?

Interesting questions to ponder...

February 23, 2007 | Permalink

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Comments

One of the results of too much user control is found in this pithy quote:
"Self-service is like no service at all."

Posted by: Yorick | March13, 2007

Ooh, ooh!! Barry Schwartz talks about this kind of thing in The Paradox of Choice! More details at my review: http://thewantedlibrarian.typepad.com/thewantedlibrarian/2007/01/book_1_the_para.html

Posted by: Brian Want | February23, 2007

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