Emulating Web Tools to Become Indispensable to Your Users
Jinfo Blog

By Emma Wood

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Do you remember where you were the first time you heard about Google? I do. It was 2002, and I was enrolled in the library technician programme at SAIT, a polytechnic college in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Some of my classmates and I were talking about our search engines of choice, and one of them mentioned Google. I'd never even heard of it, but one search was enough -- I was hooked. I still use other search engines, but like the thousands of other people who have it set as their home page, Google is usually the first place I turn to for Internet searches.

But it's an everyday battle to get the lawyers and staff at the mid-sized law firm, Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP, where I am a library technician, to stop relying on Google for all their searching. So much of the information they're looking for isn't accessible through search engines.

For those of us in the information field, understanding why we and our users are drawn to web tools like Google is critical. The Internet and its major players are ubiquitous, and we can't expect our patrons to stop thinking like they're on the Net when they start using our services. The panic about information professionals being replaced by computers and search engines is over, but information literacy is more important. People are busier and time is worth more than before. Face it: our users will never completely stop using popular websites and online services, instead of asking us for help.

So we might as well emulate the web services our patrons rely upon, and then one-up them. If information professionals borrow cues from these web tools, they'll become as critical as the internet to our users. There is much to be learned from wildly popular sites like Google, Flickr and Amazon. But there's still much to be said for the human touch.

The first thing to keep in mind is that it's not all about technology; it's a frame of mind. When it comes to coding, our skill levels may vary, and even when the will to learn is there, few of us have unlimited budgets and resources to purchase or develop sophisticated new applications.

Usability counts

We should, wherever possible, pay attention to user interfaces. This is a fuzzy area. For every expert who claims a particular site has excellent usability, you'll find another who disagrees. But we can probably all agree that familiarity triumphs lacklustre design. Do the advanced search capabilities of your catalogue matter if your users are afraid to use them? Try to capitalise on search techniques and interactive functions that your users are already familiar with, so that they can search for information in a business setting in the same ways that they would search for information in their personal lives.

The John Hodgson Library of Imagine Canada has done a great job of doing just that. They host an information portal for the non-profit, charitable and voluntary sector at <http://nonprofitscan.ca/>, where their online catalogue of library and internet resources makes use of interactive features reminiscent of Amazon.com. Each item's record can be assigned a five-point usefulness rating and users may leave comments about the item, along with their name and location, for other users to read. Users may also compile book lists, similar in function to online shopping carts.

Kim Turner, Manager of Library Services, says the library worked with Andornot Consulting, their Inmagic Webpublisher Pro provider, to develop these features as part of a 'web effectiveness' project. Because the majority of their users access the library 'virtually', from across the country, these enhancements to the catalogue provide a way for users to connect and create their own readers' advisory, which, according to Turner, "... is important in a public, non-profit sector setting, and will help promote the development of online communities of practice".

Be nimble

Apple's Steve Jobs is famous for his 'one more thing' utterances at the end of keynote presentations. Apple always has something newer, better and more exciting than they had a few months ago. If we can learn one thing from this giant and its competitors, it's to be nimble. These companies don't take their successes for granted. They're always working on improvements, not only for existing practices, but also for the next big thing.

Google has clearly embraced this concept: Google Labs currently has more than 20 prototypes on which it encourages public experiment and review -- News Alerts, Scholar and Google Maps all started there. The fact that many new web applications stay in beta for so long indicates that people are willing to accept a less-than-perfect product if it's continually improving.

At my firm, we had just barely completed the scanning and indexing for our online memo bank -- no small task at thousands of documents and several years of work -- when we realised that what we had developed wasn't sufficient. Our users complained that it was glitchy, hard to search and we knew they weren't using as much as they could be. What had initially seemed like a huge improvement over file folders with a cross-indexed naming scheme suddenly seemed unimpressive and antiquated. We knew we'd have to do a total revamp and relaunch. We decided to take full advantage of our library software and add metadata, full-text searching and an improved user interface -- in short, we added the characteristics needed to bring it up to today's standards for online searching. At first it was disheartening to think of starting over again, but we had to listen to the feedback from our users, otherwise we'd be the only ones using the memo bank.

Future-think

Embracing improvement means looking at new technologies as well. There have never been more technologies -- especially free or inexpensive ones -- at our disposal. Nowadays we expect popular websites to have RSS feeds, and we cringe when they don't. We crave interactivity, and it's unusual to visit a site that doesn't allow commenting or feedback. To keep up with the internet, we've got to embrace the concept of Web 2.0.

Steve Matthews, Knowledge Services Director at Clark Wilson LLP, does. He was charged with creating a corporate intranet for his firm. He envisioned a portal that incorporated many different aspects of Web 2.0, especially blogging and RSS feeds, and accomplished this using the open-source CMS Drupal.

The intranet features mixed and scraped RSS feeds from external sources. For example, one is comprised of major industry players' press releases and announcement feeds. It also enables each user to blog, leave comments on content such as contacts in the expert directory and assign categories to content on the fly, which results in that content's inclusion in various other locations and feeds within the intranet. Plans for tagging are in the works, too.

"It's about selecting technologies that are on the public internet that are applicable and appropriate behind the firewall", says Matthews, who notes that many pitfalls associated with these technologies on the Internet, such as spam and vandalising, are virtually non-existent within the small, private community of the firm. And, since Drupal automatically tracks usage, Matthews has the statistics to prove that the intranet is a vital part of the firm's communication.

Keep it simple

Another way to emulate popular web tools is through language. Thinking about your communication, both written and oral, is critical in creating a welcoming and un-intimidating information centre. Flickr has mastered this skill. Saucy, but not glib. To the point, but not dull. Users are drawn to its plain language, which is free of jargon and condescension. It's even got a sense of humour and playfulness -- just read the personalised multilingual salutations on the homepage.

It's both easier and harder than you'd imagine creating this tone in your communication. We've been conditioned to think that bigger words are better, and long complex sentences sound more intelligent. Escaping that mindset can be a challenge, but there are abundant online and print resources available to guide you through the process. (Use keywords 'plain English' or 'plain language' on the internet or an OPAC.) One area we strive to think about our language choices is in our department's monthly e-newsletter.

Lawyers read all day long, but we want our newsletter to stand out among all the other paper and email. We make a concerted effort to write in a tone that's friendly and approachable, and we're always looking for content that will be of interest to all members of the firm. We try to keep our communications free of jargon, interesting and enjoyable.

The newsletter contains useful information, including summaries of new books in the library and important new cases, links to useful websites, information on upcoming continuing education events, recent additions to various internal databases, humorous anecdotes and news, and a trivia contest that involves using the Internet or our intranet to solve. I think we're doing a good job: last month, a senior partner demanded an advance copy to take home on the long weekend.

Man over machine

As popular and successful as certain web tools are, there will always be advantages to working with humans. Information professionals depend on this interaction, so it's a worthwhile exercise to identify what we can do that computers can't.

One of the most frustrating obstacles in computerised research is the 'zero result' query - a search that yields no or irrelevant hits. In the fields of legal and business research, our users encounter it frequently. This leads to self-doubt and uncertainty about the effectiveness of a search, but sometimes the answer is that there is simply no answer!

Information professionals can confirm this might be the case. We can provide the back-story, details about the information or the lack thereof. Mary Ellen Bates calls this concept 'information topography analysis', which is a fitting description and also a nifty way of writing research cover sheets.

I recently began (and have since received thanks and appreciation from users) a cover sheet with completed research requests, indicating where I searched, a summary of what I found and any interesting aspects of the research. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only does this produce a better-quality product for the user, it is a good organisational tool for me. It tells me if I've missed any obvious resources. It can be educational too: the user sees that you didn't just search Google but went to deep and invisible web resources.

In our library, one of the biggest challenges is that our users want us to read their minds. They want us to fill in the blanks, read between the lines and know that when they say they saw something on last night's newscast, it was actually in last weekend's newspaper. These problems, as frustrating as they can be, are often the most satisfying to solve. And the key to sleuthing these solutions is to know the people asking.

One of our biggest advantages over computers is our ability to form relationships with our users. The better we know them, the more likely we are to be able to fill their requests -- which doesn't mean just giving them the answer they need, it also means giving it to them in a format that they can use. Cookies, caching and 'remember me' settings will never be a substitute for an intimate knowledge of a user's preferences. Certain users always want an email, others never do. We know who works from home on Fridays, and won't get the research package if we leave it on his chair, so a PDF version with live links is in order.

Lastly, real, live people are the ideal when it comes to customer service. Even the most extensive FAQs on a website are no match for talking to a human. Have you ever tried to find Amazon's customer service telephone number on their site? It's famously unpublicised, although it has now been published on several personal websites.

Getting help in real time shouldn't be so much work, so you should make it as easy as possible for your users to get in touch with you, in the manner they prefer. Your users should know that regardless of how they get in touch with you, be it via email, phone, IM or in person, they'll receive excellent service. In our library, students are some of the heaviest users. They need help finding books, cases, statutes and regulations, and most of all, they need reassurance that they're headed on the right research path. Sometimes they just need to talk something through out loud to make sure that it makes sense.

We like to be the soft place where they can fall, ask 'stupid questions' and take a break from a maddening project. When they need a sugar boost, they can grab some candy from our jar. When they need a distraction, they can challenge our 20 questions toy. Only humans are capable of compassion and reassurance, which are often all a user wants.

Information professionals have more competition today than ever, but getting creative and thinking about why your competition is successful can inspire you to emulate them in some ways. Taking the time to assess which of your users' needs are being met through web tools enables you to develop fresh ways of delivering your own services. As power users of all sorts of web tools, we forget exactly why we like using them, and looking at them from the perspective of our users can be enlightening. So, the next time you have a few minutes to spare, check out some new web tools, and see what your old favourites are up to!

Related FreePint links:

• "Marketing for the Info-Entrepreneur," by Mary Ellen Bates <http://www.freepint.com/issues/060504.htm#feature>
  
  
• "Marketing for the Info-Entrepreneur: Top Techniques to Build Your Business" <http://www.freepint.com/shop/report/mie/>
  
  
• Google Labs <http://labs.google.com/>
  
  
• "The Seed of Apple's Innovation" <http://digbig.com/4mqnd>
  
  
• Plain English Campaign <http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/>l/content/">http://www.freepint.com/portal/content/>
  
  

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