Does your user interface have a future?

The most important enticement to use a library user interface is the promise of interesting content. Users will come if they find collections, information and entertainment they can't get elsewhere. They will come for "what" they find there. Whether they stay or come back, though, usually depends on "how" users find and interact with that content. If the interface is appealing, users will carry on. A few determined or fixated souls will persist through an awkward interface, but only a few. Assuming your library has some "what" that users will come to find, does the "how" of your user interface make them want to stay and even come back?

Some questions indicating an appealing user interface are obvious: 

• Is it simple and uncluttered? 
• Are the most frequently used functions prominent and easy to find? 
• Does the workflow make common tasks a matter of one or two clicks?
• Are the graphics and colors complimentary and non-distracting? 

I'd like to focus on two other appeal questions that may not be so obvious:

Does your user interface have a light integration with other online environments?If you have an established institutional Web presence, the library interface should give you a matching banner, navigation, colors, fonts, layout, etc. It should be easy to put a library interface elements elsewhere, a search widget, links that launch searches, or links to specific resources, for example. It should be easy to add integrations with social networks like LibraryThing, Goodreads or Facebook. It should be easy to add videos, sound files, or feeds from blogs, from RSS, or from Twitter. It should be easy to add catalog enrichment of your choosing like cover art, reviews or tag clouds. A light integration with other online environments means that you don't need to reprogram the whole interface or even pages of it to add integrations like these. You should be able to upload a bit of custom code and be done.

Does your interface provide a satisfying mobile experience? Mobile devices will soon be the primary Internet connection for a majority of the general population. The rules of interface design still apply, but with a few special considerations. A mobile library interface should offer essential transactions with a minimum of typing and clicking. It should take full advantage of multi-touch interaction options. Because mobile devices are almost always a very personal space, they should remember logins by default. When a user opens the application, it should pick up right where the user left off in her last session. 

At SirsiDynix, we've invested quite a bit lately in the appeal of our user interfaces. Every new Enterprise install includes custom attention for colors, layout and integration with existing environments. Enterprise comes with a large set of sample integrations – LibraryThing, Chilifresh, Google Books, Facebook and Delicious, for example. The BookMyne iPhone app is free for patrons, a standard part of the SirsiDynix ILS. While there is more still to do, that investment is clearly paying off.