Mind blowing ideas

Okay, take a half hour to listen to Jesse James Garrett,President, Adaptive Path talk about experience strategy...

"Garrett explains that "experience strategy" is designing from the outside in. Whereas branding philosophy relies on imposing your message on the consumer, experience strategy is the opposite: it's about starting from the consumer's perspective and working backward from it. This approach is also counter-intuitive to the classic coder perspective, from which so many technology products get their start.

Transformative products make us wonder how we ever lived without them. Garrett uses well-known product examples to demonstrate what sets them apart from the rest of their industries. It's not just the features or the price or the marketing, rather it is how users relate and interact with and feel about the product. Designing and developing using experience strategy gives your product the foundation to potentially be the next Kodak or TiVo, to make lasting changes in how consumers think about technology."

Why take the time? Because the future of libraries isn't just about technology or the many features that can be offered but about the relationship people have with our products. In the old days we understood that relationship our customers had with our products- how they loved the feel and smell of the books, but as our products evolve we may have lost that understanding. Maybe because many in our field are still in love with books and don't have the connection to new technologies. So many in our field don't understand the emotional connection people have with their iPods so are confused when they find out people would rather pay for audio books than to have to give up their beloved iPods to get free audio downloads. That can have a huge impact when you consider the market share for iPods is estimated anywhere from 75% to 85%! We need to understand this as we chose our products if we are going to choose products our customers "want" rather than choose those items they "need". Why are people not using our "databases" when they contain the information students and researchers really need? Why do they prefer Google or wikipedia? It's all the same reasoning why people will spend 5 bucks on a cup of coffee...understand that and the future of libraries will be something to smile about.




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