Letter to the Editor Ann Kucera 
 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | JUNE 2018 9 
https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i2.10407 

 

Dear Editorial Board, 

Regarding “Halfway Home: User Centered Design and Library Websites” in the March 2018 issue 
of Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL), I thought there were some interesting points. I 
think that your assertion, however, that User Centered Design automatically eliminates anything 
from a website that your main user group did not expressly ask for is faulty. 

When someone brings up the fact that User Centered Design is not statistically significant, I 
interpret that as a misunderstanding of what User Centered Design is. Our academic library 
websites are not research projects so why would we gather statistically significant information 
about them? Our academic library websites are (or should be) helpful to students and faculty and 
constantly changing to meet their needs. If librarians perpetuate a misunderstanding of User 
Centered Design, my fear is that misunderstanding could perpetuate stagnation and a refusal to 
change our technology/user interfaces in a rapidly changing environment and do our patrons and 
ourselves a disservice. 

User Centered Design is a set of tools to help us gather information about users and their needs. 
The information gathered informs the design but does not dictate the design and needs to be part 
of an iterative process. The web design team at your institution demonstrated User Centered 
Design when they added floor maps back into the web site when a group of users pointed out that 
it was causing problems for the main users at your institution. 

While valuable experience from librarians and other staff is critical to take into account, it is 
sometimes difficult to determine which pieces of the puzzle provide comfort to those who work at 
the library vs. which pieces assist students in their studies. I applaud your willingness to “clear the 
slate” and reduce the amount of information you were maintaining on your website. I’m guessing 
you may have removed dozens of links from your website. You only mentioned adding one 
category of information back into the design. I would say your User Centered Design process is 
working quite well.  

Ann Kucera 
Systems Librarian 
Central Michigan University 

https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i1.10338