A interactive demo showing the ideal online dutch public library

Employer: Info.nl
Year: 2009
Role: creative lead, interaction designer
Deliverables: concept, storyboard, personas, wireframes, functional description
Methods: sketching, brainstorms with client, in-depth interviews with users and their kids

The goal
Showing the potential of a integrated and strongly personal online library platform

Research
The current online exposure of the dutch public library is differentiated and not well integrated. Our mission was to show the ideal online library. ecosystem. To do this we first asked ourselves: what is the state of the information seeking society. What’s going on? How are adults and youngsters getting their information? We combined sharp analysis and research done by the VOB itself together with our in-depth interviews. We questioned singles, parents, their kids and elderly people. This gave us a useful insights we used during concepting, designing and building the final demo.

The demo
We ended up with a interactive Flash demo illustrating the use cases of our two persona’s: Casper (11) and Vera (59). Both using the library in their own context, with their own purposes and in their own way. The demo demonstrates a future ecosystem in which all online library platforms keep their identity but at the same time are part of a bigger integrated system. A system in which the whole gets better by individual effort. Simple said: stuff you can do on library website X, can be done on library website Y, but with other contextual features and content. On top of that functionality, appearance and content is highly personalized. For example: Vera (59) loves to visit the local library 2 times a week. She is likely to suffer from reduced sight. She has grand kids and she is going to Italy this summer. She scarcely goes online, but when she does, she visits the site of her public library. We offer her a easy to read and use interface, features and books for her and her grand kids, her Italy ‘lists’ and so on. Casper (11) loves the popular Dutch social network Hyves. There he wants his widgets, his alerts and there he meets his friends. 50% of his online time he spends on his iPhone. We offer him site features and apps that help him do his school work, meet his friends and show off with cool stuff/books he read.

The demo is now [2010] being used as a conceptual basis in multiple library projects, executed by Info.nl