9: The Polar Bear Book

At the Library of Michigan, I’d been the web site administrator since the early 2000’s, mainly because I was conversant with the software. I was still full-time in the Braille and Talking Book Library, where I had also created an Intranet for the Michigan system of sub-regional libraries. It contained Readers’ Advisory information, reference services specific to our patrons, and daily statistics.

At first my energy went into learning HTML and CSS. Then into copying forms and manipulating them for new purposes. Everything was in tables for layout purposes. All of my colors were chosen from that ancient grid of pale yellows and grays that were guaranteed to look the same on any monitor (when that was still a thing). I knew I wasn’t savvy about graphics. I’d never be a designer.

I heard about this practice called usability testing. I decided to try it. The feedback was harsh. But it was also revelatory. I was getting good at figuring out what worked on a website – what was effective. But I’d had no formal training… yet!

One of our textbooks was called Information Architecture by Peter Morville and Lou Rosenfeld. It had a polar bear on the cover. I nearly died feeling so cool.

I learned terms like “iterative design” and “wire frames” and “heuristics.”

Hubby’s best advice about going back to school was to spend the entire three years building learning experiences that I could apply toward my thesis. We weren’t actually required to write a thesis, but we did have a research methods class where we had to plan a research project.

In that class, I planned out a User Experience study. I gathered both practical and theoretical articles which filled three ring binders. I approached Marie to be my research partner. And when I pitched the idea to my employers at LM, they backed me with resources that matched the value of the MeL.org website to the library.