A recent post from the Publishing 2.0 blog really got me thinking. Somewhat provocatively titled, “If Your Users Fail, Your Website Fails, Regardless Of Intent Or Design,” the author shares his views on the extreme importance of user experience in the context of the web. He holds up Google as the gold standard and frankly, I think he has a great point. He says that Google succeeds, and deservedly so, because of its intense focus on the user experience. One statement of his captures this view:

“Google is obsessed with making sure its users never fail, no matter how “stupid” they are. Google makes users feel smart. That’s why they keep coming back.”

Wow. All I can say is, read this post and think it through very carefully and you will gain some insight into the problems we who work in libraries face when it comes to user experience. This model or viewpoint — making users “feel” smart — is so radically different from what many libraries have tried to do in the past. I’m encouraged by the noticeable proliferation of job announcements or library initiatives that contain tasks relating to user interface design. See here and here for examples.